SA Derby winner adds Preakness

Coming from fourth place to win by a neck at the wire, last month’s Santa Anita Derby winner I’ll Have Another notched the 2nd leg of the Triple Crown today by winning the Preakness in Baltimore in front of a record crowd of more than 121,000.

I'll Have Another (left) passes Bodemeister at wire. Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images, from Bleacherreport.com

That sets up a chance to complete the Triple Crown at Belmont Park in New York three weeks from today on June 9.  It’s been 34 years since Affirmed became the last horse to win the Triple Crown in 1978. Big Brown was the last to have a chance by winning the Kentucky Derby and Preakness in 2008, but an injury prevented the thoroughbred from completing the Belmont race.

Today’s Preakness was also a victory for Arcadia High School graduate Tyler Cerin, now a 24-year-old horse physical therapist living in Azusa who is one of several tending to the 3-year-old colt, as reported in today’s Pasadena Star-News.

Jockey Mario Gutierrez moved his horse ahead of Mike Smith and Bodemeister for the first time just a few yards before the finish line. Bodemeister led a slow pace the entire race until that point. Both horses finished far ahead of the rest of the pack that included third place finisher Creative Cause. The top three finishers were all California horses.

It was the second disappointment in two weeks for famed Santa Anita trainer Bob Baffert, Smith, and Bodemeister, after losing to long-shot I’ll Have Another by 1 1/2 lengths at the Kentucky Derby earlier this month.

I’ll Have Another is owned by Paul Reddam and trained by Doug O’Neill. Reddam purchased the colt for $35,000 at a 2-year-old in training sale in Ocala, Fla., in April of 2011. Prior to winning the Santa Anita Derby April 7 at 4-1, I’ll Have Another won Santa Anita’s Grade II Robert B. Lewis Stakes on Feb. 4 at odds of 43-1. The horse became the first Santa Anita Derby winner since Sunday Silence in 1989 to win the Kentucky Derby. Prior to that seven other horses have parlayed victory in the Santa Anita Derby to the Kentucky Derby winner’s circle: Winning Colors (1988), Affirmed (1978), Majestic Prince (1969), Lucky Debonair (1965), Swaps (1955), Determine (1954) and Hill Gail (1952).

Racing resumes at Santa Anita in late September and the 2012 Autumn Meet will be highlighted by the Breeders’ Cup World Championships on Nov. 2 & 3.