Photo: NYRA
Triple Crown hopeful I’ll Have Another put
in a fourth solid gallop over Belmont Park’s main track Monday morning as
Team O’Neill began planning some extracurricular activities during the
lead up to the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 9.
As I’ll Have Another is scheduled to do each day before the 1
½-mile “Test of the Champion,” the Kentucky Derby and Preakness
winner went to the track shortly after the renovation break, jogged a half-mile
and galloped a mile.
“If any of you guys got a chance to see him, I think he’s
maintained his energy level and his stride, and he looks fantastic,” said
trainer Doug O’Neill at his daily press briefing. “Today the track
was, according to the crew, at its deepest and most tiring, so it was good to
get him over that, and he recovered very quickly and drank a very little bit of
water. So he’s fit, and we have to stay lucky and stay injury-free and
we’ll be in great shape.”
O’Neill, who said he was hoping to attend a taping of “Late
Night with Jimmy Fallon” in Manhattan, revealed that he, jockey Mario
Gutierrez, and owner J. Paul Reddam, had been invited by Jessica Steinbrenner
to throw out the first pitch when the New York Mets play the New York Yankees
on the eve of the June 9 Belmont Stakes.
“If all goes well they asked us the day before the Belmont to have Mario,
Paul and I, to symbolize the Triple Crown, to have all three of us throw it
out,” he said. “What a huge honor it is. That should be a
blast.”
I'll Have Another/Lava Man Photo: NYRA