Derby deja vu as I'll Have Another runs downs Bodemeister in Preakness

Two weeks ago, J. Paul Reddam's I'll Have Another ran down pacesetter

Bodemeister to take the Kentucky Derby under the Twin Spires at Churchill Downs.

On Saturday, I'll Have Another took on that pacesetting rival in the 137th

running of the

Preakness Stakes and gutted out a neck victory to take the second jewel of

the Triple Crown at Pimlico.

The front-running Bodemeister took command straightaway and set more

reasonable fractions of :23 3/5, :47 3/5, 1:11 3/5 and 1:36 3/5 this time around

than what he did in the Derby. Jockey Mario Gutierrez settled I'll Have Another

in behind and to the outside as Creative Cause kept pace with Bodemeister on the

backstretch.

Bodemeister, Creative Cause and I'll Have Another swung around the turn in

tandem, but the gray Creative Cause couldn't keep pace as his two rivals faced

off yet again. Bodemeister held the advantage for much of the stretch run, but

I'll Have Another kept inching closer and just got up in the shadow of the wire

to finish 1 3/16 miles on the fast dirt in 1:55 4/5.

"We wanted to be a little

bit closer to Bodemeister this time because normally that horse runs a huge

race," Gutierrez said. "My horse has a tremendous kick in the end. He has been

proving that in the last three races. He didn't disappoint again today.

It's now on to the Belmont Stakes in New York for the Doug O'Neill-trained

I'll Have Another, who cost just $35,000 when purchased by O'Neill's brother

Dennis at the 2011 OBS Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training. The colt will attempt to become the first Triple Crown winner

since Affirmed swept all three races in 1978.

"I'm just numb," Doug O'Neill said. "I could see him and I felt like he was

coming, but you never want to expect that he's going to be in front. I saw him

coming. It seemed like the stretch never ends. Usually you want it to end.

Incredible.

"Just absolutely exciting," O'Neill added in regards to the winning the first

two legs of the Triple Crown. "It's what it's all about. Those are the kind of

races you hate to lose. But when you win those kind of races, you always feel

like you have a chance the whole race. Then you're yelling at the top of your

lungs. Then to see a horse in front at the wire, there is no better feeling.

It's incredible."

"I haven't thought past today," Reddam admitted when asked about going for

the Triple Crown in an NBC post-race interview. "I just can't imagine it.

Hopefully the horse is doing well out of the race. It's going to get crazy."

"It's one of those things where it's good for the sport. It's good for the

Belmont. It's tough," trainer Bob Baffert admitted about Bodemeister's loss. "I

felt really good about where he was. He looked like he was traveling nicely down

the backside and coming to the three-eighths pole, he just sat on him. The

fractions were more reasonable today, so turning for home I really thought he

was going to do it. He just got a little late there at the end.

"It was a good horse race. I really can't complain. We didn't win it, but my

horse ran his race.

"The winner's a good horse. He'll get the respect now that he deserves,"

Baffert added. "The California horses are really tough. They ran 1-2-3. I'm

proud that as a trainer my horse showed up and he ran his race. He just got

beat."

"I thought I put him away but (I'll Have Another) reached up and got us with

three strides," said Bodemeister's jockey, Mike Smith. "Two great horses and I

give them all the credit for what they did."

I'll Have Another is following in the illustrious hoofsteps of fellow

California-based Sunday Silence, who captured the Grade 1 Santa Anita Derby en

route to victory in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness over Easy Goer. Those two

put on a show in the 1989 Preakness similar to I'll Have Another and

Bodemeister, with Sunday Silence just getting the nose win over his chestnut

rival.

In the Belmont Stakes, though, Sunday Silence fell short as the 1 1/2-mile

distance of the "Test of the Champion" proved too far. I'll Have Another has

thus far proven capable of finding more as the distances have increased from 10

furlongs in the Derby to 1 3/16 miles in the Preakness, and could complete one

of the toughest challenges in American sports by adding the Belmont to his

resume on June 9.

I'll Have Another began his career last July at Hollywood Park, breaking his

maiden on the synthetic Cushion Track by three parts of a length. He followed up

with a second while making his stakes debut in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes on

Del Mar's all-weather Polytrack, then shipped cross-country to New York to try a

conventional dirt track in the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. The Flower

Alley colt was unable to challenge that day after running wide throughout,

ending up sixth on the wire, and called it a campaign for his juvenile season.