I’ll Have Another took a day off from training on a wet day at Pimlico
The Grade 1 Kentucky Derby winner, I’ll Have Another took a day off from training on 15 May, 2012, at Pimlico Race Course, where he is set to run in the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, the Grade 1, $1 million Preakness Stakes set to go underway on 19 May, 2012, and will be run over a distance of 1 3/16 miles.
Heavy rain was forecasted on 15 May, 2012, and it did come down heavy – which left the track muddy. That forced trained Doug O’Neill to keep his barn in the shed.
The forecast for the rest of the week until the Preakness Stakes is bright and sunny, and that gives O’ Neill ample time to train I’ll Have Another with his routine works leading up to the Preakness Stakes this Saturday.
The canceled training wouldn’t have harmed I’ll Have Another’s training process that much, because the colt flew to Baltimore real early after winning the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs, and since then the son of Flower Alley has turned in a series of works comprising of jogging and galloping on the wet sealed track of Pimlico.
“With walking it’s a rest day, where with jogging at least you’re doing some form of exercise,” O’Neill said. “I have no problem galloping on a wet track. It just seemed right. Looking at the weather, we’re going to be fine tomorrow. Why chance a slip or something silly happening? I have three other horses here, too, and we walked the shedrow with all of them.”
With I’ll Have Another taking it easy on 15 May due to weather, the runner up of the Kentucky Derby, Ahmed Zayat’s Bodemeister at Churchill Downs under exercise rider George Alvarez galloped one and a half miles on a fast track after the renovation break.
Bob Baffert said earlier that Bodemeister will train on the morning of leaving to Baltimore, as the trainer himself will be at Pimlico in time for the post position draws for the Preakness Stakes.
Mike Smith has been recalled to ride the runner up once again in the Preakness Stakes.
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