Coming up: Erin talks to the only living Triple Crown-winning trainer
The sudden retirement of I'll Have Another, the odds-on favorite to win the Belmont Stakes tomorrow, has ended this year's Triple Crown chase.
The Triple Crown – a single horse winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and Belmont Stakes in the same year – is so difficult to achieve that it has only happened 11 times in the history of the sport, most recently in 1978.
Only one man still knows what it's like to train a Triple Crown winner. Erin Burnett talks to Billy Turner, the trainer for Seattle Slew when he captured the Crown in 1977, tonight at 7PM/ET.
I'll Have Another scratched from Belmont, retired from racing
(CNN) - I'll Have Another, the winner of this year's Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, is out of Saturday's Belmont Stakesbecause of a leg injury and has been retired from racing, his team said.
Trainer Doug O'Neill said the 3-year-old colt began developing tendonitis in his left foreleg. He called the development "freakish."
"Yesterday, he galloped great, but the afternoon we noticed some loss of definition in his left front leg to which, like every other owner and trainer, we prayed he just kind of hit himself and it was just a little bit of skin irritation.
On Twitter
My wife and I are Equine Body workers and see these injuries occur in even more mature horses. A two year old horse is equivalent to a 14 year old human. Their bones, muscles, ligaments have not fully developed and don't mature until they are 5 years old (breed dependent). This lack of development and the fact they are being asked to perform in the major leagues is paramount to their early breakdown. Would you place a 14 year old boy on the football field to play against the NY Giants ??