Barbara D. Livingston
Hot Rod Charlie trains at Belmont Park on Tuesday. He has a solid chance to give Doug O'Neill, who has won the Kentucky Derby twice and the Preakness, his first Belmont Stakes.
ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to the Belmont Stakes, trainer Doug O’Neill would rather think about what could be than what might have been.
On the day before the 2012 Belmont Stakes, O’Neill and owner Paul Reddam stood before a throng of reporters outside of Belmont Park’s Barn 1, explaining how Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another would be scratched from the Belmont and subsequently retired with a tendon injury.
A painful memory to be sure, it’s not something O’Neill dwells on.