I'll Have Another's bid for the first Triple Crown in 34 years ended shockingly in the barn and not on the racetrack Friday when the colt was scratched the day before the Belmont Stakes and retired with a swollen tendon.
''It's been an incredible ride, an incredible run,'' trainer Doug O'Neill said. ''It's a bummer. It's not tragic, but it's a huge disappointment.''
I'll Have Another, who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes with stirring stretch drives, was the 4-5 favorite to win the Belmont and become the 12th Triple Crown winner and first since 1978.
Instead, he becomes the 12th horse since Affirmed, the last Triple champion, to win the first two legs but not the Belmont.
The scratch marks the first time since Bold Venture in 1936 that the Derby and Preakness winner didn't run in the Belmont. Burgoo King skipped the race in 1932.
''Could he run and compete? Yes. Would it be in his best interest? No,'' O'Neill said.
He said the swollen left front tendon was the beginning of tendinitis, which could have taken six months to treat, and so the popular horse was retired.
''Yesterday he galloped great, but in the afternoon we noticed some loss of definition in his left front leg,'' he said, addressing the media outside the Belmont barns while I'll Have Another grazed nearby. ''We did just an easy gallop today. I thought he looked great on the track, and then cooling out, you could tell the swelling was back.''
O'Neill said he conferred with owner J. Paul Reddam and they contacted Dr. Jim Hunt, who examined the horse.
''... Immediately we got Dr. Hunt over here and he scanned him and he said it was the start of tendinitis in his left front tendon and you can give him 3-to-6 months and start back with him,'' O'Neill said. ''It was unanimous between the Reddams and my brother and I and everyone at the barn to retire him.''
Reddam confirmed that, saying: ''We're all a bit shocked, but we have to do what's best for the horse. And if he can't compete at the top level, he's done enough.''
After the news conference, O'Neill led I'll Have Another out of the detention barn and walked him down a path toward the barn where the colt had stayed for most of the time he had been at Belmont. Starting Wednesday, all the Belmont Stakes horses were housed in the same barn; the track said it was a security measure.
''Some people have asked did the detention barn have anything to do with this. Absolutely not. Just a freakish thing,'' O'Neill said.
His brother Dennis said: ''We're very, very bummed out, but we'll be back next year.''
He said it was hard to tell anything was wrong just by looking at the horse.
''He looks great. He's sound. He went great this morning. He looks super (but) you just can't take a chance. He's too valuable of a horse and we love him to death like all of them,'' he said. ''You wouldn't run a horse if you think something might happen.''
Larry Bramlage, Belmont's on-call veterinarian, called it a ''slow-healing injury.''
Bramlage compared it to an Achilles tendon injury, which usually keeps a person off his feet for six weeks.
''This one to the horse is nowhere near that severity,'' Bramlage said, ''but it takes the same amount of time to rehab it.''
Bramlage said, for this horse, it would probably take a year to recover. He added that a tendon in a race horse is ''more highly evolved'' than anything in a human.
''It's an early injury,'' Bramlage said. ''If you went on and had he raced, the danger would have been a bowed tendon, meaning a significant number of fibers injured.''
Other trainers sympathized with O'Neill's plight.
''I feel terrible for Doug,'' said D. Wayne Lukas, who trains Belmont starter Optimizer. ''To come this close and have arguably the best horse, everything being equal, you have to give him the nod as being the best horse. He's done everything he was supposed to. He had four big ones (wins) in a row. That fifth one is tough. That's what I've always said, it's not a Triple Crown, it's a five or six race series.''
Billy Turner, who trained Seattle Slew, the 1977 Triple Crown winner, said: ''When you're in a Triple Crown campaign, and believe me, I went through it with an undefeated horse, every single day, you worry about this because one little thing can go wrong that makes the whole thing fall apart. So, you are never confident in this situation. Things like this do happen. At least the horse is going to be all right. It's not a total tragedy.''
I'll Have Another came out of a losing effort in the Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga last September with shin problems and took the rest of the year off.
He returned to racing in February, and won the Robert Lewis Stakes at Santa Anita, putting the colt firmly on the Triple Crown trail.
O'Neill and Reddam immediately gave the colt two months off leading up to the Santa Anita Derby, which he won by a nose on April 12.
He followed with victories in the Kentucky Derby on May 5 and the Preakness two weeks later to set up the highly anticipated Belmont Stakes and a try for the Triple Crown.
But the tough 1 1-2-mile Belmont Stakes isn't called the ''Test of the Champion'' for nothing. Given the slightest hint of a problem, the colt's connections withdrew him rather than risk further injury for a shot at making history.
''It's devastating. I thought this was going to be one of the greatest races in history, and I wanted the opportunity to be part of it,'' said Dale Romans, trainer of second favorite Dullahan. ''But this is bigger than that. This is terrible news.''
Actually, not much has gone right for Team O'Neill, starting with the day after I'll Have Another's thrilling win in the Preakness.
On his van ride to New York, the trip was delayed several hours because of traffic on the New Jersey Turnpike. A few days later, O'Neill was suspended 45 days and fined $15,000 by the California Horse Racing Board for a medication violation. His suspension is to begin after the Belmont.
Then, racing stewards said that for the Belmont, I'll Have Another could have to go without the nasal strip he wore in races this year, and exercise rider Jonny Garcia had visas problems and had to be replaced for several days.
The scariest thing was a near collision with a loose horse on the track last week, prompted racing officials to establish a special window of time for Belmont Stakes horses to be on the track.
Then there was the detention barn, ordered by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board for all the Belmont Stakes horses. It was a security measure, the board said, but the decision angered some trainers, who said moving their horses might affect their performances.
The story of I'll Have Another began at Brookdale Farm, 500 acres of Bluegrass in Versailles, Ky. That's where the stallion Flower Alley was bred to Harvey Clarke's mare Arch's Gal Edith.
Flower Alley won the 2005 Travers Stakes and finished second in the Breeders' Cup Classic. His father was Distorted Humor, who produced 2003 Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner Funny Cide. On I'll Have Another's mother's side, there is a long line of horses with speed and stamina, an asset when it comes to the 1 1/2-mile Belmont. Not regal bloodlines, but there was potential.
Upon arrival at the 2010 Keeneland November Yearling Sale, Victor Davila - who works for Eiasman Equine training center in Williston, Fla. - gave himself a $10,000 budget, but overspent by $1,000 on the colt. He liked the way the chestnut yearling moved, and after having turned profits on several previous purchases, figured the investment was worth it.
He saddled and broke the horse at his house, and then brought it to the Eiasman's training center.
''I don't think anyone at that time in life recognized he would be vying for a Triple Crown,'' said Barry Eiasman, who runs the center with his wife, Shari. ''His basic skills were good. He was like a good junior high school player. But he also had that one special aspect - a gusto for the sport - and he really was a nice runner.''
