The notion persists, agonizing in its simplicity. If Spectacular Bid, as good as he was, couldn’t win the Triple Crown, nor Alysheba, Sunday Silence, Silver Charm, or Smarty Jones, was it ever reasonable to expect Pleasant Colony, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem, Funny Cide, or Big Brown to pull it off?

The question will be asked and answered again June 9 at Belmont Park when I’ll Have Another, the horse of the hour, is thrown into the maw of a daunting historical trend in his attempt to add the Belmont Stakes to his Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories.

Retired Hall of Famer best known as the trainer of Alydar, who finished second to Affirmed in all three Triple Crown races in 1978, the last time a horse swept all three races. He served as chief steward in Kentucky during a six-year tenure that ended in controversy over the Life At Ten incident at the 2010 Breeders’ Cup. He has a suit pending against the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission over his firing in late November. His late father, Syl, was also a Hall of Fame trainer.

Age: 66

Residence: Lexington, Ky.

ELMONT, N.Y. – The Belmont Stakes nearly lost its marquee player Thursday morning when a different horse got loose and nearly ran into Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another during training hours at Belmont Park.

I’ll Have Another was not touched by the loose horse and was able to complete his normal training regimen without issue, but it created some anxious moments for trainer Doug O’Neill.

ELMONT, N.Y. - Alpha, one of just four graded stakes winners among the dozen 3-year-olds being pointed to the June 9 Belmont Stakes, will miss the race after developing a temperature earlier in the week, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin said Thursday morning.

Jockey Mario Gutierrez is taking this week off to spend time in Western Canada before traveling to New York to ride Triple Crown hopeful I’ll Have Another in the Belmont Stakes on June 9.

Gutierrez rode at Hollywood Park on Monday, but is not booked to ride this week, according to his agent, Ivan Puhich. Gutierrez rode at Hastings Park in Vancouver until last October and has traveled there to visit friends this week, Puhich said.

“He’ll be leaving Canada and he’ll be going straight to New York,” Puhich said Wednesday.

At Belmont Park on Wednesday, Guyana Star Dweej did little to enhance his Belmont Stakes credentials when he was pulled up by jockey Eddie Castro in the final sixteenth of a mile of what was to be a five-furlong workout.

Daily Racing Form clocked Guyana Star Dweej in splits of 12.57 seconds, 24.70, and 37.39 for three furlongs. Inside the sixteenth pole, however, Castro pulled him up, and he jogged across the wire. Belmont Park clockers credited Guyana Star Dweej with a half-mile time of 50.03.

AUBURN, Wash. – Bob Meeking has been saddling horses since the year 1947 BC – Before Citation – in a rollicking training career spanning parts of eight decades. Still going strong at 83, he has been witness to four Triple Crown winners since taking out his first trainer’s license. He would like nothing more than to see I’ll Have Another make it five with a victory a week from Saturday in the Belmont Stakes.

The time has arrived, Patrice Wolfson said Wednesday, to pass the Triple Crown torch. Wolfson and her late husband, Lou, owned the last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, who swept the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont Stakes in 1978. The torch has been in her hands so long, she might have third-degree burns.

Of all the thorny questions dividing the nation -- Obama or Romney, Phillip or Jessica, one-piece or two – nothing seems to stir the emotions quite like the rampant speculation over the potential impact of what could be the first Triple Crown winner in 34 years.

Alicia Wincze Hughes of the Lexington Herald Leader warns against assuming that a Triple Crown winner will solve racing’s ills, but does hold out the hope that, “Should I’ll Have Another take the Triple Crown and remain in training for the months ahead, the sport could have a marketing dynamo on its hands.”

Horses in the Belmont Stakes on June 9 will be subjected to strict security and drug-testing protocols under a series of requirements announced on Wednesday by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board.