BALTIMORE – I'll Have Another came out of the Preakness in "super" shape, and trainer Doug O'Neill says it's on to New York for a Triple Crown try in the Belmont Stakes.
While O'Neill was heading back to California on Sunday, a bright and healthy looking I'll Have Another was loaded onto a van for the trip to Belmont Park, where he will prepare for the 1 1/2-mile Belmont on June 9.
O'Neill said I'll Have Another "licked his feed tub clean" and the trainer "definitely feels the energy and buzz in the air" about a Triple try.
"Bring it on," O'Neill said outside his barn Sunday morning.
I'll Have Another edged Bodemeister by a neck in the Preakness on Saturday. Two weeks earlier he defeated the same rival by 1 1/2 lengths in the Derby. A win in the Belmont would make him the 12th Triple Crown champion, and the first since Affirmed in 1978.