Triple Crown contender I’ll
Have Another visited the paddock at Belmont Park
Sunday morning, standing briefly in the saddling enclosure and walking several
times around the paddock before heading to the track for his customary
energetic morning gallop.
“The way he went today, that will be the last time he’ll
see the paddock [before the race],” said trainer Doug O’Neill. “He’s
good to go.”
After passing through the grandstand tunnel from the paddock to the
main track, the handsome chestnut colt was warmly greeted by the “Breakfast
at Belmont”
fans who lined up along the rail to watch him gallop past with exercise rider
Jonny Gonzalez. On June 9, the chestnut colt will attempt to add the 1 ½-mile Belmont to his Kentucky
Derby and Preakness victories and become racing’s 12th Triple
Crown winner.
“It’s so cool to see the people in the paddock and in the
grandstand,” said O’Neill, who trains I’ll Have Another for
J. Paul Reddam. “You can start
feeling the excitement that the Belmont’s
coming. It’s a huge credit to the Belmont
people to set aside the special time, kind of closing off these 15 minutes and
letting people come out and get a chance to see some of the runners. It’s
been fun.”
O’Neill, who watched I’ll Have Another’s gallop from
the box seats in the grandstand, was also able to see several other Belmont contenders put in
their final breezes for the “Test of the Champion.”
“I didn’t get a chance to really dissect the horses that
worked, but when the horses came by me, I thought that Dullahan looked great,
stretching out,” said O’Neill, adding he thought Paynter and
trainer Ken McPeek’s duo of Atigun and Unstoppable U looked good as well.
Informed that Dullahan’s trainer, Dale Romans, thought he had the
horse to beat in the race, O’Neill said: “I respect [Dale] a ton,
so if he says that, it’s scary. As confident as he is in his horse, I’m
equally confident in my horse. I think we’re in really good shape.”
Coming through the stretch, I’ll Have Another picked up the pace
considerably and galloped out with good energy, which O’Neill was delighted
to see.
“He’s just a special horse,” he said. “Good
horses do things that are special very easily. It’s so humbling to be
around a horse like him. He’s such a brilliant horse. We wouldn’t
be here without I’ll Have Another’s brilliance.”
The trainer said he would like to have I’ll Have Another moved
into the Belmont Stakes barn Monday morning after training, and added that he
was hoping the tightened security would help focus attention on the horse.
“I am kind of looking forward to running him in a situation when
you’re in a fishbowl and everyone who has thought negative thoughts about
me can realize it’s not about me, it’s about the horse,” he
said. “And they can watch him lead up to a historical event and,
hopefully, watch him kick butt, in a fishbowl.”
Photo: NYRA, Adam Coglianese