Liz O'Connell

The North American roll out of the Breeders' Cup Challenge kicks off on Memorial Day, May 28 2012, with the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park Race Course, Elmont, New York. The winner of the Met Mile, and winners of the 72 other Challenge races, will have...

He's back. That would be Hansen-the-racehorse. Without the Hansenettes, the blue tail drama or Doc Hansen. What we have is the essence of Hansen-the-racehorse. A Mini Hansen, small yet undiminished. A goodwill Hansen, as it were.

I'll Have Another, the first Triple Crown contender in four years is coming to New York to run in the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the series, on June 9. Having taken both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes from the favored Bodemeister, I'll Have Another will have three weeks to further hone his lethal homestretch kick.

With both the Derby and the Preakness hard fought races with the same 1-2 outcomes, it's hard not to liken this year's Triple Crown series to that of 1978, when the brilliant Affirmed edged out the valiant Alydar in the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont, to take the Triple Crown. No Triple Crown has been won since then.

J. Paul Reddam, I'll Have Another's owner, might as well take a patent out on his horse's turbo-kick. Since a five-month break after last year's unfruitful effort in the Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes -- Gr. 3, the colt has kicked his way to the winner's circle in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes -- Gr. 2, and the Santa Anita Derby -- Gr. 1, as well as the two Triple Crown contests, all under the guiding hand of phenom jockey Mario Gutierrez.

At a post-Preakness press conference, Reddam shared some observations on I'll Have Another's Preakness race:

Well, my first thought before the race was races never go like people think they'll go on paper. So I wasn't really surprised to see the horses stand across the track when they went by the grand stand the first time, because it just sounded too simple to say that Bodemeister would be on the lead and we'd be tracking him.

So going into the clubhouse turn, we were caught wide, and I said oh, oh, I don't like the way this is shaping up. And at the half mile pole we were in the clear, cruising, and in a pretty good spot.

But the horse in the lead was running strong. I could see coming out of the turn that it was going to be a dog fight between I'll Have Another and Bodemeister. We had some ground to make up, and the other horse was not stopping. He ran a very brave, gigantic race. I wasn't sure that we would get there, but I knew that our horse had a lot of heart and a lot of fight. He had been in a dog fight in the Santa Anita Derby, which probably did him well."

Trainer Doug O'Neill's brother Dennis O'Neill bought I'll Have Another for Reddam Racing LLC at the Ocala 2011 Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training from Eisaman Equine, agents for the seller Victor Davila. O'Neill paid $35,000 for the colt. Previously, I'll Have Another was purchased by Davila at the 2009 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $11,000. The colt has now earned $2,693,600.

I'll Have Another's sire is Flower Alley, a gritty, dig-in type of race horse that won over $2.5 million, including the 2005 Travers Stakes -- Gr.1. If you want to send a mare to Flower Alley this year, he stands at Three Chimneys Farm for an advertised $7,500. Good luck getting your mare booked to him!

I'll Have Another's dam, Arch's Gal Edith, won her only race, a maiden special weight at Belmont Park. Her Equibase chart-notes for the race describe her as "dug in gamely on the rail in the stretch and reported home under a drive." It would appear that I'll Have Another got his game from both sides of his pedigree.

I'll Have Another will ship directly from Pimlico Racetrack to Belmont Park, to settle and prepare for June 9.

A look at Big Brown's, Smarty Jones' and Funny Cide's Belmont Stakes where they were foiled in their Triple Crown bids.

Looking back, in 2008 Big Brown's Triple Crown campaign brought to the fore how much a horse's connections can overshadow its achievements. A huge stallion syndication deal, run on steroids-no steroids, partnership hype, Hooter's girls, all took the limelight from Big Brown's brilliance. He faltered in the Belmont, eased in the stretch as, Nick Zito trained Da' Tara wired the race. A positive postscript is Big Brown's offspring have been well-received and are anticipated to debut this year.

In 2004 Smarty Jones was in the same spot as I'll Have Another is now. When he won the first two legs, the prospect of him winning the Belmont and the Triple Crown was heady. When Smarty took the lead down the Belmont backstretch, he was hard pressed by Rock Hard Ten and Eddington. Finally Smarty was clear by a length and a half, and looking like a Triple Crown winner to the crowd of 120,000 waiting to see history. It was not to be. Lightly regarded at 36-1, Birdstone ran a tactical race, surged past Smarty Jones in the final yards of the mile-and-a-half race and won by a scant length.

The previous year, 2003, Funny Cide came to the Belmont two-for-two in the Triple Crown races. Anticipation was huge. Funny Cide was owned by a partnership, Sackatoga Stables, made up of a group of high school friends who raced for fun. Their shock and awe at the exploits of Funny Cide's successes brought an ebullience long absent from the Belmont. For the first time, a horse bred in New York, owned by New York guys had the Triple Crown in its sights. Out of the gate, Funny Cide was in the lead, but eventually gave way to Empire Maker and Ten Most Wanted, coming in...

Last week, a Canadian sheep farmer, Montana Jones, reported 41 of her sheep had been apparently been stolen. The Shropshires were expected to be euthanized by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). The doomed sheep aren't sick or diseased, but they do have genetic markers that...

Issues and initiatives covered at the 2012 American Equine Summit this past weekend at a horse welfare education center in Chatham, NY, ranged from developing a tactical agenda to persuading Congress to pass the American Horse Slaughter Prevention Act, to Paula Bacon's recounting of her successful effort to shut down...

Sometimes there are people who forget that horses, our willing partners throughout the development of civilization, are sentient beings. Horses feel and avoid pain. They form hierarchical communities within any grouping -- be it on the range or in a paddock. They interact with humans in an uncanny, beseeching manner.

Humans like having horses around. I certainly do. We like watching them. We like partnering with them when riding or driving. We like hanging out with them, grooming them and oftentimes being groomed by them.

The ongoing headlines about mayhem being perpetrated upon horses, whether being illegally manipulated to run in a race or being used up and discarded at the slaughter auctions in Amish country, are sickening. Thankfully, there are thousands of people across the country who step in, protect and rescue horses, and who advocate for enforcement of the protective rules already in place that some regulators choose to ignore and who initiate those rules and laws where there are gaps.

Rescuing and ensuring the safety of horses is like a game of whack-a-mole -- one crisis taken care of, two more pop up. Talking with people involved in horse rescue, there is an underlying sense of frustration and powerlessness; that whatever is accomplished, those on the dark-side, intent upon abusing, neglecting and/or harming horses, will not be stopped. The dark-side people are predators, and if they weren't abusing horses, they'd find another outlet for their anti-social, repellent behaviors.

This all would seem impossible and pointless, if not for one thing -- the horse -- because of its nature and tolerance of human behavior, we keep trying.

When a film like Horse You See comes along, it is renewing. Through simple, elegant dialog, Ross the horse, shares his take on being a horse. Narrated in Navajo with English subtitles, Ross takes us on a guided tour of his being and concludes with a song he sings when happy. Ross is a poet.

Ross' song from Horse You See, written by Johhny Henry:

I am a beautiful horse

When I walk beauty surrounds me
When I run beauty surrounds me

You can hear my neighs
You can hear my hooves
There is beauty all around me

Beauty follows me as I walk
I walk on a path of beauty
Beauty is above me
With every step there is beauty
From my voice, there is beauty

This makes me so happy
Because of this the human race
Admires our herd, and ...
...would really like to belong to us.

Beauty towards me.
In beauty it is said.

Thank you.

Red Ant Films' Horse You See is featured in the 2012 PBS Online Film Festival. Previously, it won Best Children's Film at the Talking Circle Indigenous Film Festival, Hawaii in 2009. It is my favorite horse film,...

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