I'll Have Another Is the Pick Here

In 2008, I was at the Belmont Stakes, covering the race for the Los Angeles Times, when Big Brown attempted to become horse racing’s first Triple Crown winner since 1978.

Big Brown had won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness, but failed miserably at the Belmont. Jockey Kent Desormeaux, fearing an injury, pulled the horse up as he headed into the home stretch.

Big Brown was the 12th horse since 1978 to win the first two legs of the Triple Crown and then fail to win the third.

Now it is I’ll Have Another’s turn to break the jinx, and I’m going out on a limb and predict he is going to do it. There are plenty of skeptics who say the huge mile-and-a-half Belmont track will be too difficult for 25-year-old jockey Mario Gutierrez to navigate.

But Gutierrez has ridden I’ll Have Another to all four of his wins, beginning with the Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4 at Santa Anita. I’ll Have Another went off at odds of 43-1 in that race.

T, followed by the wins in the and the Preakness. That streak is enough to have made I’ll Have Another the 3-5 favorite to win the Belmont. It is the first time the horse has been favored.

Those skeptics will say the favorite has won the Belmont only three times since 1995. But this horse has bucked the odds and I believe will do it again and Gutierrez will once again be flashing that smile after another big victory.

I like Union Rags, who finished a disappointing seventh in the Kentucky Derby, to finish second in the Belmont. Union Rags, who did not run in the Preakness, has a new jockey, Johnny Velasquez, and that is one reason a lot of people are picking Union Rags.

Dullahan, third in the Kentucky Derby, will likely finish in that spot at the Belmont as well.

It’s a big day for horse racing, and thus a big day for Arcadia. And Santa Anita Park will be bustling. The racetrack will be open for business and offering a lavish Triple Crown Buffet. The cost for adults is $24.95 and for kids 3-11 is $14.95.

“Uno Mas Mario” T-shirts and souvenir plastic cups in honor of Gutierrez will be available. It very well could be One More for Mario.

Other establishments around town will be offering special promotions as well. For example, the Station bar on Baldwin will be offering free food and
$1 second drinks – buy one, get the second for $1.

This will be a day where we should all forget about the negatives in horse racing — the drugs,, the labor dispute and all that — and concentrate on the positive.

It should be fun.