By Brett Popplewell
Sportsnet Magazine
It’s one of the most grueling races of the year. Twelve furlongs of mud, sweat and shattered dreams. And though it only takes 150 seconds to complete, the Belmont Stakes — the longest and final stage of the prestigious Triple Crown — determines whether the horse of the year is really a horse to remember.
Few things have fallen further from grace than the Sport of Kings. Once a favourite pastime, thoroughbred racing has become little more than a sideshow to the slot machines that have consumed racetracks across North America. It has been 34 years since a horse last won the Triple Crown, and the drought has led the media and the masses to abandon the sport altogether, choosing instead to watch (and bet on) games better suited to a TV audience. That is, at least, until now.
With the American-bred, Mexican-jockeyed and Canadian-owned colt I’ll Have Another just 12 furlongs away from Triple Crown glory, the public seems to actually care again about what’s set to happen at Belmont Park on Jun. 9.
Everyone loves a dramatic horse story, and I’ll Have Another’s is as dramatic as they come. A noble foal with traces of Northern Dancer’s blood pumping through his veins, the unsuspecting son of a Kentucky Derby dud, he sold for a modest $35,000 as a two-year-old while some of his contemporaries, including Bodemeister (this year’s Derby favourite), sold for more than $200,000. A surprise race-winner from the get-go, I’ll Have Another hurt his shins early in his career and required months of rest but mounted a comeback and qualified for the Kentucky Derby after an impressive showing at the Santa Anita Derby while being ridden by an unknown 25-year old jockey named Mario Gutierrez. Gutierrez and his Chestnut colt took to the starting gate at the storied Churchill Downs with the odds stacked 15-1 against them only to cruise through the pack and steal the lead from Bodemeister within site of the finish line.
I’ll Have Another and Gutierrez had won the Derby, but they had not yet earned the respect of thoroughbred enthusiasts who were quick to label their victory a fluke. “This was supposed to be Bodemeister’s year,” they said. “Bodemeister’s still the horse to beat.”
And so it was that Bodemeister entered the Preakness Stakes (second stage of the Triple Crown) as the betting man’s favourite. And when the gates finally opened in Baltimore and the horses exploded onto the track, it seemed the bookies were right. There was Bodemeister, leading the pack while I’ll Have Another fell back to fourth. Then came the last turn and the final stretch and suddenly it was I’ll Have Another storming the outside track, chasing down Bodemeister and nosing him out at the finish line.
And just like that, I’ll Have Another had become the horse of the year. And before the week was out he was packed up and shipped to Belmont Park for one last dance.
Eleven horses have come this far since 1978. All have arrived at Belmont with a shot at the Triple Crown and yet all have fallen victim to another horse, another jockey. The last was Big Brown, who, in 2008, annihilated all comers at the Derby and the Preakness and entered the Belmont Stakes a 3-10 favourite only to finish an inexplicable last place.
There are those who say the Triple Crown can no longer be won; that the punishment of three exhausting races in six weeks is an insufferable challenge for any modern thoroughbred. War Admiral, Secretariat, Affirmed — these were magical creatures that dominated their sport like Babe Ruth and Muhammad Ali. Animals that did things that contemporary statistics say can no longer be done. And yet there’s something about this horse, this year that has even the most casual race fan wondering if history will be made come Saturday.
Bodemeister is out, his trainer opting to rest the former front-runner instead of forcing him into another duel with the Chestnut colt that bested him twice in the last month.
With his most obvious foil out of the race, I’ll Have Another enters the Stakes with 3-5 odds. But he’ll have to beat 11 other horses. Dullahan (5-1 odds) and Union Rags (6-1) now stand as his most likely challengers. Though both horses failed to match his pace at the Derby (they finished third and seventh respectively), neither raced in the Preakness and are thus better rested than the Triple Crown hopeful.
Whether or not I’ll Have Another wins the Belmont Stakes, it will not reverse the declining fortunes of a dying sport. And yet, for a brief moment, that won’t matter. The bets will be laid, the gates will open and for 150 seconds the world will watch and scream as horse and jockey dig deep into the mud of a New York track and make one last push toward history.
Full list of contenders:
Atigun (30-1 odds)
Dullahan (5-1 odds)
Five Sixteen (50-1 odds)
Guyana Star Dweej (50-1 odds)
I’ll Have Another (3-5 odds)
Optimizer (30-1 odds)
Paynter (8-1 odds)
Ravelo’s Boy (50-1 odds)
Street Life (15-1 odds)
Union Rags (6-1 odds)
Unstoppable U (30-1 odds)
My Adonis (20-1 odds)