Local Horse Experts: I'll Have Another's Scratch Devastating
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- The Triple Crown achievement in horse racing is safe for another year.
I'll Have Another, the victor at the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, suffered a tendon injury and won't run in Saturday's Belmont Stakes.
The 3-year-old was the favorite to win the grueling mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes.
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Ted Grevelis is a member of the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association and is the beat writer for the Daily Racing Form for Canterbury Park in Shakopee.
He said I'll Have Another's chances of winning Saturday were excellent.
"I think they were outstanding," Grevelis said. "He certainly had the pedigree to get the distance."
Local defense attorney Joe Friedberg owns thoroughbreds and is a racing fan. He said this is devastating news for the sport.
"I just feel terrible about it," Friedberg said. "Horse racing has needed a Triple Crown winner for all these years, because it's something that brings the public into a sport that the public has pretty much forgotten about. This is just terrible."
Both Grevelis and Friedberg said scratching the horse is absolutely the right move.
"If I'm the owner of the racehorse, that's exactly what I want to have happen," Grevelis said. "You have to do what's best for the racehorse."
I'll Have Another will now likely be retired to stud. Friedberg said the horse will command an expensive stud fee.
"(I'll Have Another) will carry significant value as a stud based on winning the Derby and the Preakness," Friedberg said. "But certainly nothing like he would have carried if he had won the Belmont. It's the difference between a $25,000 stud fee and a $200,000 stud fee."
