ELMONT, N.Y. - The scratch of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another from Saturday’s Belmont Stakes will likely leave Dullahan as the favorite for the third leg of Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown.

Dullahan, the third-place finisher in the Kentucky Derby, is a slight favorite over Union Rags, the seventh-place finisher in the Derby, in the Brooklyn-Belmont Stakes daily double wager.

A Brooklyn-Belmont double linking Brooklyn winner Redeemed ($6.50) with Dullahan would return $25. It returns $29 with Union Rags.

Before I’ll Have Another was injured and withdrawn from the Belmont Stakes, people who care about horse racing hoped that he could win the Triple Crown and give the sport an exciting and positive story. It hasn’t had many of those lately.

The superficial flexor tendon of the equine forelimb is about 18 inches long. It runs from just above the knee to the pastern. It is about 1.2 centimeters wide and five millimeters thick, and on Friday at Belmont Park, if you asked around, there was nothing superficial about it.

In fact, the injury sustained by I’ll Have Another, forcing his scratch from the 144th Belmont Stakes the following day, was a deep wound to the heart of the sport, poised as it was to welcome the first Triple Crown winner since 1978 to the ranks of the 11 colts who had come before.

ELMONT, N.Y. − While the defection of I’ll Have Another will certainly enhance their chances of winning Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, trainers Dale Romans, Michael Matz, and Ken McPeek all expressed sympathy for Doug O’Neill and the connections of the injured horse.

Comments made by trainer Doug O'Neill and owner Paul Reddam on Friday, June 8, announcing I'll Have Another's injury and retirement one day before attempting to sweep the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes. Transcript provided by NYRA.

Forget about the proverbial other shoe. For the beleaguered sport of horse racing, under attack from a variety of quarters, and particularly for the embattled New York Racing Association, the scratch on Friday of I’ll Have Another from the Belmont was the twelfth or thirteenth shoe to drop.

ELMONT, N.Y. – As they say on Broadway, the show, such as it is, must go on.

The scratch on Friday of I’ll Have Another from Saturday's 144th Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park, and his retirement from racing, has taken the Belmont from a potential Triple Crown bid to an anticlimax, an unsatisfying coda to what had been a compelling and controversial Triple Crown series.

There is still a field of 11, still well-known horses such as Dullahan and Union Rags, but the Triple Crown bid was what made this race of such great interest, and now that major element is gone.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Someday there may be another Triple Crown winner, but it won’t be I’ll Have Another.

In news that was as shocking in its timing as for its substance, I’ll Have Another was not only scratched from Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, but was retired from racing with an injury to the tendon in his left foreleg, his connections announced Friday.

I’ll Have Another joins Burgoo King (1932) and Bold Venture (1936) as the only horses to have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but not compete in the Belmont.

Countdown to the Crown today completes a seventh season online as one of the most comprehensive handicapper’s scouting reports of the 3-year-old scene. Posted each Friday at DRF.com from Jan. 6 through the Belmont Stakes, Countdown keeps you apprised of the rising stars of the 3-year-old class from the maiden ranks through the Grade 1 stakes. You can access daily updates and interactive features at Countdowntothecrown.com as well.

3 things you won’t read anywhere else

For racing fans old enough to remember Secretariat, Seattle Slew, and Affirmed winning the Triple Crown, many subsequent attempts to sweep the series have seemed almost sacrilegious. Horses such as Real Quiet, Funny Cide, Charismatic, and Big Brown didn't deserve to put their names on a short list with the sport's all-time greats.