2012

was the year of my favourite Triple Crown horse races.  I included my story in my book My Imaginary Dog and thought you, dear reader if you're out there, would enjoy it.  This story was brought to mind recently when I heard one of my favourite handicappers, Brian Zipse, say on one of his weekly videos, that The Preakness that year was his very favourite Triple Crown race.  So, here it is.

I and my sister have been going to the races for many years.  It is our one shared love.  One of the most exciting races I ever saw was the Kentucky Derby in 2012.  The winner, I'll Have Another, was ridden by a local jockey, Mario Guttierez, which made it special for me and all the other racegoers at Hastings Park where we watched the big race on a big TV.   The horse was 13 to 1 on the odds.

Mario was a bit of a celebrity for a while, and deservedly so.  The race and the jockey were mentioned on the CBC.  This was Mario's first mount in the Kentucky Derby and then he won it.  There were twenty horses entered for the big race. I'll Have Another  had the 19 spot which had never won the Derby, until then that is.   Trinniberg, a known sprinter, took the lead.   Many people had objected to Trinniberg being entered because he was a sprinter and the race is 1 and 1/4 miles, but he gave a good accounting of himself, I thought.  Bodemeister, the favourite, took the lead from him and they battled along for a bit.  I'll Have Another, a horse who has good speed from the gate too, took the sixth position on the outside.  A few of the very good horses in the race were in the middle and on the rail and suffered accordingly.  They were bashed and squeezed and bumped.  It was a madhouse, as it usually is.  Bodemeister entered the stretch with a five length lead and he looked like a winner.  Out of the pack came I'll Have Another and he kept coming and coming and coming and caught Bodemeister at the wire by a length and a half.  It was so great, one of the best races I'd ever seen, until the Preakness.

The Preakness is the second jewel in the Triple Crown.  It's a shorter race, 1 mile and 3/16ths, and the field is about half of the Kentucky Derby.  That is why Bodemeister remained favoured because of his speed and staying power.  Both horses broke well with Bodemeister in front by about 1 and 1/2 lengths as expected, and I'll Have Another in 4th I believe.  The pace wasn't as fast as the Derby which boded well for Bodemeister.  They entered the stretch and I'll Have Another had moved to 3rd, and then the race was on.  Bodemeister was not slowing but I'll Have Another on the outside kept grinding away and in the final yards, caught Bodemeister.

The crowed was pretty jubilant at Hastings Race Track. The place erupted when Mario won.  I've never heard a crowd calling for the jockey rather than the horse.  Mario, Mario, Mario, they shouted.  Come on Mario, bring him home they said over and over during the stretch run, and he did.  I'll never forget that thrilling moment.

I'll Have Another did not win the Triple Crown because he was not entered in the last leg, the Belmont, the longest race at 1 mile and a half.  The insinuation was that he could not run, and everyone assumed an injury.  Nothing specific was ever said and he was sold for big bucks soon after to someone foreign.  I always figured it came down to money, as it usually does, but I had no proof, only bitter disillusionment that he did not run and win his rightful Crown.

In 2015, American Pharoah won the Triple Crown, but for me he did not have the thrill of I'll Have Another, nor the talent.  His times for the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness were mediocre at best, as were the horses he beat.  There was no way American Pharoah could've outrun the great Bodemeister.