Kentucky Derby winner I’ll Have Another stretches out at Pimlico ahead of the Preakness Stakes
The Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby winner, I’ll Have Another, is now Preakness Stakes bound, as the Doug O’Neill trained colt stretched his legs on 14 May, 2012, at Pimlico ahead of the middle jewel of the Triple Crown – which offers a purse of $1 million.
Doug O’Neill was firm in his words when he said that the 3-year-old Flower Alley colt will not undergo intense training leading up to the Preakness Stakes, as the colt will be content will mild workouts comprising of jogging and an occasional gallop.
However, the 14 May work consisted of a strong gallop early in the morning to beat the rain that was expected to come down later in the day.
It certainly was an eye-catching work from I’ll Have Another, who worked in company with his multi-million dollar pony, Lava Man.
With exercise rider Johnny Garcia aboard, the stable mates engaged in a strong galloped until the five furlong pole, as the Pimlico clockers timed the run of I’ll Have Another going from quarter pole to the wire in 26.60 seconds.
“He’s showing great energy,” O’Neill said later. “That’s pretty much what we do with him all the time. We let him put his feet where he wants to put them. It’s what we’ll do with him the rest of the week, more or less. We had success with him doing it like that this winter in California, we had success with it in Kentucky, and hopefully we’ll have success with it here.”
J. Paul Reddam’s I’ll Have Another is exiting a memorable win over, Bodemeister, when he reeled the rampant colt 100 yards before the wire, and downed him by an impressive 1 ½ length victory.
“I didn’t want to take any chances,” said O’Neill. “It’s no big deal. The first couple of days we got here, the track was sealed, and he galloped over it fine.”
Out of Arch mare Arch’s Gal Edith, I’ll Have Another is yet to taste defeat in the 2012 season, and with 3 wins in as many starts, Doug O’Neill can hope that his colt can extend his winning streak by stringing together two more remaining races of the Triple Crown and make history.
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