I'll Have Another holds off Bodemeister to win 2012 Preakness

The colt's connections plan to ship him to New York on Sunday morning to avoid weekday traffic. O'Neill has said all along that he thought I'll Have Another -- purchased for just $35,000 on the recommendation of his brother Dennis -- could win a Triple Crown. He said it in Kentucky, where his horse was a 15-1 long shot. He said it here. He'll likely say it again in the coming days.

"It's about this horse," O'Neill said early in the week. "I get to talk, so people pay attention to me. But we're just caring for what -- I've been telling people this -- is a really special horse. This is the sort of horse who can do it."

Finishing almost nine lengths ahead of the third-place finisher at Preakness lends credence to that. Stewards of the sport have talked longingly of what the first Triple Crown winner in 34 years would do for horse racing.

Three weeks -- and many thousands of questions, both about the horse and about the alleged transgressions -- from now, O'Neill, his team and the rest of a sagging industry could find out.

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