Preakness 2012 Results: I'll Have Another Proves He's Triple Crown Contender

I'll Have Another has essentially become the rock star of horses with his back-to-back wins at the 2012 Kentucky Derby and 2012 Preakness Stakes, and he deserves all the hype that comes along with being a Triple Crown contender.

You'll hear it a million times from a million different people in the days and weeks leading up to the 2012 Belmont Stakes—the Triple Crown is one of the rarest, if not the rarest, accomplishments in sports.

Horses have a hard enough time winning two races in a row, let alone three major races, so the fact that we're talking about I'll Have Another as a realistic candidate for the Crown points to how good of a horse he actually is.

It points to a bunch of things, really. It points to the skills the horse possesses, but it also is a testament of how good young jockey Mario Gutierrez is.

Make no mistake, it's the horse that runs the race, but there is no doubting that Gutierrez is connected with I'll Have Another, and he understands exactly what he needs to do to get the best out of him.

Two races in a row now have been beautifully orchestrated by Gutierrez, and he has a real chance to pull off history on this hose by winning the 2012 Belmont.

We learned that I'll Have Another is not a fluke after watching him pull off nearly the same race twice in a row. Gutierrez had him hanging with the crowd for both the Derby and Preakness for most of the race, but then asked him to push it into second gear on the final turn—both times overtaking Bodemeister for the win.

It's obvious that the horse has enough patience to wait for the jockey to tell him what to do, and he has all the speed and stretch necessary to make that final push. We've seen him do it twice now, and in graceful fashion both times.

It's a nearly impossible feat, but this horse-and-jockey tandem may have just the right stuff to pull it off.

One of the hardest things to do in sports is to win the Triple Crown, but I'll Have Another is a true contender worthy of the honor.