I’ll Have Another and Creative Cause, featured players in the Santa
Anita Derby drama that unfolded Saturday in the closest finish in the
3-year-old classic since 1985, when Skywalker nosed out Fast Account,
came out of their mano-a-mano in good order and it’s on to Louisville
for the Kentucky Derby on May 5, albeit on different paths.
Plans were undecided Sunday morning on when I’ll Have Another
will head to Kentucky, but Creative Cause is set to ship on April 28.
“He came out great,” said trainer Doug O’Neill of 4-1 second
choice I’ll Have Another, who edged 9-10 favorite Creative Cause by a
nose in a thrilling three-horse photo finish in which 42-1 outsider
Blueskiesnrainbows finished third by a half-length after setting the
pace in the Grade I race that awarded $450,000 to the winner and
$150,000 to the runner-up. Blueskiesnrainbows earned $90,000 for his
third in the 1 1/8-mile test.
“He ate up his dinner and his legs were ice cold this morning,”
O’Neill said about I’ll Have Another, a son of Flower Alley ridden by
Mario Gutierrez for owner J. Paul Reddam. “I’m not sure whether we’ll
ship to Kentucky a few weeks out or a week out. Plans haven’t been
finalized.”
Gutierrez, meanwhile, earned the mount on Reddam’s Handsome Mike in next Saturday’s
$1 million Arkansas Derby at Oaklawn Park.
“He looks good this morning,” trainer Mike Harrington said of
Creative Cause. “He was a little tired but none the worse for wear.
He’ll ship on the 28th.”