If I'll Have Another wins the Belmont Stakes and becomes racing's first Triple Crown winner in 34 years, he will have done something rare and magnificent that a lot of excellent horses have tried and failed to do. This does not mean, however, that he is a good bet at 4-5 or that horseplayers should feel intimidated or unpatriotic for trying to beat him.

ELMONT, N.Y. – A dozen horses will line up for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes, but of that group, there are less than a handful with a legitimate chance of actually winning the race. Some of the field, including I’ll Have Another, have been training here regularly for the past several weeks. Others, like top contender Union Rags and longshot My Adonis, did not arrive on the grounds until Wednesday.

The following (listed in post position order) are the impressions the Belmont dozen have made during training hours over the past week.

What are the odds that I’ll Have Another completes his sweep of the Triple Crown series?

If you ask most people (and toss out those who go overboard in either direction by saying “it’s a lock” or “he has no shot”), they will probably quote the 4-5 odds given him on the Belmont morning line.

ELMONT, N.Y. – I’ll Have Another was born in Kentucky, received his early training in Florida, began his racing career in California, and has flown to Kentucky, Maryland, and twice to New York in the past nine months.

Hall of Fame trainer Jack Van Berg says he can’t remember the last time he was at Belmont Park. Since it was Oct. 6, 1991 – when Fit to Scout finished fifth in the Grade 1 Beldame – and since Van Berg turned 78 years old Thursday, he can be forgiven if the memory of that day has faded.

Van Berg was set to make a rare appearance here this weekend when I’ll Have Another attempts to do what Van Berg’s Alysheba in 1987 could not – win the Triple Crown.

Bettors will have ample opportunity to cash a ticket on Saturday’s 13-race card.

There will be exactas and trifectas offered in each race. Superfactas, with a 10-cent minimum, will be offered in all races except the second.

There will be rolling pick threes and daily doubles offered beginning with the first race.

There will a trio of pick fours starting on races 2, 8, and 10. The pick four beginning with race 8 – the Just a Game Stakes – and concluding with the Belmont will have a guaranteed pool of $1 million.

Mario Gutierrez, a stranger in a strange land, took one look at the unfamiliar racecourse laid out before him and shook his head.

“I can’t do this,” he said.

At five furlongs in circumference, Hastings Park was a shock to Gutierrez, who was just 19 at the time and freshly arrived in Western Canada from his native Mexico.

ELMONT, N.Y. – It is now 34 years in the waiting and 12 furlongs to go for racing’s next Triple Crown winner. I’ll Have Another is the 12th horse to try to capture Thoroughbred racing’s Triple Crown since Affirmed accomplished the feat in 1978.

Beginning in 1997, Tom Durkin has called the last seven attempts at immortality, including the last four tries for network television.

Michael Matz does not want to win the 144th Belmont Stakes with Union Rags, the Kentucky Derby's seventh-place finisher, just so he can say, “I told you so.”

On the contrary, Michael Matz wants to win the Belmont Stakes with Union Rags to be able to say, with absolute conviction, “I told me so.”

ELMONT, N.Y. – The requirement that all horses in the Belmont Stakes reside in a detention barn for 72 hours before the race has angered a number of trainers in the race who say that those staffing the barn lack necessary horse sense and that the atmosphere is not conducive to horses performing at their optimum.