I’ll Have Another Scratched From Belmont Stakes, Will Be Retired

I’ll Have Another, the horse that came from behind to win the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes before being scratched a day before attempting to win the 2012 Belmont Stakes for the Triple Crown, has been sold for $10 million to a Japanese group, reports BloodHorse.com.

I’ll Have Another’s previous owner, J. Paul Reddam, explained the decisions to retire I’ll Have Another and ultimately sell him in a 1,500-word blog post at BloodHorse:

I’ll Have Another was supposed to have the latest chance at adding another name to the list of Triple Crown on Saturday at the Belmont Stakes, running for history. Instead, he has been scratched from the race and will be retiredas a result of a tendon injury sustained in a Friday practice.

What does that mean for horse racing? SB Nation’s Matt Gardner, editor of And Down The Stretch They Come, analyzes it in a new video from SB Nation’s YouTube channel.

I’ll Have Another trainer Doug O’Neill called into “The Dan Patrick Show” on Friday to confirm the famous horse would be pulling out of Saturday’s 2012 Belmont Stakes due to a leg injury. This ensures there will be no Triple Crown winner in 2012.

CSN Chicago supplied a video of the Dan Patrick Show segment on which O’Neill appeared to announce the decision. O’Neill tried to break up the moment with levity, as you can see in the video below.

A tendon injury is typically not life-threatening, but it is a serious injury and the recovery time can be a minimum of three months or longer. Additionally, due to the importance of the legs of a horse, and the fact that re-injury to a tendon is difficult to correct, top class horses are generally retired even after they have recovered from the initial injury.

A greater explanation of the importance of a horse’s tendon is detailed at the website For The Love of The Horse:

It appears that the world will be without a Triple Crown winner for yet another year, but in an extremely disappointing way. I’ll Have Another, the winner of the 2012 Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, has officially been scratched from Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, according to trainer Doug O’Neill.

In an interview on the Dan Patrick Show on Friday, O’Neill confirmed that I’ll Have Another has indeed been scratched. O’Neill said, “We ain’t taking any chances,” and that the scratch “is a bummer, but far from tragic.” O’Neill guessed that I’ll Have Another has run his last race.