Photo: Kevin Creative (Kevin House)
Dale Romans, trainer of
Dullahan, now the 9-5 morning-line favorite for the Belmont: “It’s devastating. I really wanted
him to compete. This was going to be a special race, one of the biggest races
of our time. It’s just devastating.”
“We’re going to inherit the
role as favorite, but I’d rather have him in there. I think we could have
competed with him and it would have been a great race and great for the sport.
It would have been something special to beat him.”
“I heard right after we trained that
the vets were in there working on him. My assistants called me and when I came
back there, I saw they had an ultrasound machine and that’s never a good
sign.”
“It’s usually something that
just happens. You’re under too much scrutiny here. If something was going
on, we would have seen it on the racetrack before this. It’s just a
shame.”
“It’s not even good for me,
because I am racing. It would have been better for me to go out there and beat
him. I don’t want to win it with an asterisk by his name; I wanted to
compete with him.”
“I don’t know if [the
detention barn] played a role in this or not, but we’re always going to
wonder. We will always wonder.”
Michael Matz, trainer,
Union Rags (by telephone): “I came home last night. I didn’t know what the
situation was and today people were texting back and forth. I feel sorry for
the horse. It would have been nice to try to get the Triple Crown, that’s
for sure.”
Ken McPeek, trainer of Belmont contenders
Unstoppable U and Atigun: “I feel really terrible for the connections. To do what
they’ve done and what they’ve been through – it’s like
completely letting the air out of a balloon. Doug [O’Neill] has done this
for a long time and he’ll keep his head up and they’ll come back in
the future.”
D. Wayne Lukas, trainer,
Optimizer: “I
feel bad for Doug [O’Neill], to get that close. I had Timber Country, the
favorite for the [2005] Belmont
and scratched the night before. The assistant said Timber Country had a 105
temperature. I want to talk to [Doug]. That’s the part of the game the
public doesn’t understand. It’s not like you can do this thing and
just run him another time. You only get one chance to do this. From the
standpoint of a purist it’s a blow. It will be a very good race, anyhow.
“A.P. Indy came out of the [1992] Derby. We’ve had it
before. It’s not unprecedented. For Doug to get the horse this far,
he’s had to practically live with him. It practically brings you to your
knees. It’s humbling.”
Dominick Schettino,
trainer, Five Sixteen: “It’s a shame what happened, a potential Triple
Crown winner. It would have been great for the sport.”
Kelly Breen, trainer of
My Adonis and 2011 Belmont
winner Ruler On Ice: “I feel bad for the connections, I have to be be honest with
you. To get so close and have something like that happen, is very
unfortunate.”
“I’m sure that the fans will
be disappointed, but the Belmont’s the Belmont. It’s still
a Triple Crown race.”
“We’ll still go over with our
game plan tomorrow. All I can do is try to get my horse ready, and that’s
it.”
(My Adonis trained at 5:30 this morning,
the same time as I’ll Have Another): “He looked pretty good going
out to the track [this morning]. I didn’t see him coming back because I
was done before him, but he did look good.”
Doodnauth Shivmangal,
owner-trainer, Guyana
Star Dweej: “What
I do in the morning, I look at my horses. I don’t look at other
people’s horses. As a trainer, I don’t breeze too much myself, but
I thought something wasn’t right.”
“If you have an ankle or a knee, you
can try to work with it, but a tendon is a very, very serious issue in a
racehorse. Every time they stretch that tendon, it gets worse and worse. It
depends on where the tendon is. A tendon takes time, and the only thing that
heals a tendon is time. It’s a lot of time to put into the horse. They
can come back pretty good, but it depends. Once they have that issue, it tends
to come back again.”
“That’s horse racing. We
understand that things like that happen. But it’s not good. I don’t
like it. It’s not pleasant for me. The competition will be one less horse
I have to worry about, but in my heart, deep down, it’s not something
that I want to happen.”
Kiaran McLaughlin,
trainer of one-time Belmont contender Alpha
(taken out of consideration with fitness issues on May 31) and 2006 Belmont winner Jazil:
“It’s
very disappointing for everybody involved in our industry, especially all the
people close to I’ll Have Another. It’s just really a sad day in
our industry. Luckily the horse is OK and he’ll live on to be a stallion
and we’ll hope that we have a Triple Crown winner next year.”
“It’s a still a very good race
tomorrow and a great card. They put together a great card for Saturday.
It’s disappointing.”