I’ll Have Another retires from racing after Belmont Stakes scratch

VANCOUVER – Mario Gutierrez’s dreams of winning the Triple Crown are over, after his horse, I’ll Have Another, suffered a left leg injury.

He will not be running in the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, and trainer Doug O’Neill confirmed the horse is retiring from racing.

“I feels so sorry for the whole team,” he said. “We’ve had such an amazing run.”

O’Neill thanked everyone involved in training and getting the horse to this point in his career, but said history will have to be made another day.

“Just a freakish thing,” he said. “He’s been a little quiet these last few days… yesterday afternoon we noticed some loss of definition in his leg.”

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It is the start of tendinitis in his leg.

Owner of the horse, J. Paul Reddam, said he plans to transport I’ll Have Another back home, and then get him ready for stud season next year.

“He’s doing great,” said O’Neill of I’ll Have Another. “It’s just a freakish thing.”

Reddam said Gutierrez was shocked to hear the news, and asked if he should just go home before the Belmont race.

“I think he was sort of stunned because he really didn’t say much,” said Reddam. He added that Gutierrez is sorry for the horse as he had a “real bond” with him.

O’Neill, was on the Dan Patrick show Friday morning and first confirmed that the horse has a “left leg problem”, and he doesn’t want to take any chances.

“The horse is not lame,” said Reddam, “he could have run tomorrow,” but no one wanted to take that risk.

Global BC sports reporter Shanel Pratap, who is at Belmont Park, said everyone was in shock Friday morning upon hearing the news the favourite-to-win would not run.

Gutierrez and I’ll Have Another were going for the first Triple Crown win in 34 years.

They won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes.

Pratap said everyone was being cautious with the horse this week however, and hadn’t really run him during training leading up to Saturday’s race.

Belmont is a much longer race than the others in the Triple Crown, and that may have been a concern leading up to the decision to scratch I’ll Have Another from the race.