I’ll Have Another, who on Saturday
will bid to become racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner in the
Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes, had his usual 1 ½-mile tour of Belmont
Park’s oval this morning, walking and jogging alongside stable pony Lava
Man before galloping through the lane.
“[Exercise rider] Jonny Garcia, who
gets on him, thought he felt great, so we were very happy with his training
today,” said trainer Doug O’Neill, who added that I’ll Have
Another will move into the Belmont Stakes barn on Tuesday after training. All
the starters in the 144th Belmont
are required to be in the stakes barn by noon on Wednesday.
“I know the other guys will probably
hate me for this, but I like the thought of showing the general public all the
horses are in the same locker room, they’re all being looked after real
thoroughly,” he said. “Just the transparency that our game probably
lacks is key. You get a lot of commentary from people who don’t know the
horses, who don’t know the horsemen, and don’t know how
they’re cared for. This way you have everyone in an isolated vicinity and
everyone who wants to come and kind of watch what’s going on there and
make a judgment from what’s really happening and not guessing
what’s going on in that guy’s locker room or that guy’s
locker room. I think it’s a good thing.
“The obvious negative thing is a lot
of horses do get distracted when they change stalls. It sounds silly, but it
happens. Hopefully I’ll Have Another won’t get distracted, that
none of the other horses get distracted, they all settle in good, they all
present themselves well, and it’s a nice, clean-run race, and at the end
of the day people can say, ‘Wow, they were all looked after and they all
ran great.’”
The trainer said he thought having a
Triple Crown winner would be good for horse racing.
“If he were to get lucky and win on
June 9 I think it would be great,” said O’Neill. “Anything we
can do to show what a great game it is, how beautiful these horses are, and how
well they’re cared for is, I’m hoping, a positive step.
“One of the problems our industry
has, we have a hard time falling in love with horses, because oftentimes, once
they get really good, the temptation of the financial end of it is so strong that
most of us have to take the money and retire them,” he added. “Knowing
[owner] Paul [Reddam], if the horse is right, he’d much rather see the horse
compete, and I think that would be great for the game as I’ll Have
Another is gaining more and more fans. It would be nice to see him around for
another year or two if the racing gods are looking over him.”
I’ll Have Another’s jockey,
Mario Gutierrez, is scheduled to arrive later today and O’Neill said he
and the 25-year-old rider will be reviewing tapes of previous Belmonts over the
next few days. Gutierrez is scheduled to have a personal tour of Belmont Park
with former New York riding champion Richard Migliore on Thursday, and on
Friday will ride the O’Neill-trained Boxeur des Rues in the 1 ½-mile
Brooklyn Handicap.