I'll Have Another Adds to List of Sad Stories in Horse Racing

For the 34th straight year, there will be no Triple Crown winner in the wonderful sport of horse racing.

But the reason for this adds to the recent unfortunate circumstances that has plagued horse racing for the last five years.

There's no clear-cut say as to if I'll Have Another would have run the table and won the Triple Crown. The fact that it hasn't happened since 1978, when Affirmed won all three prestigious races, you can't say for sure that the three-year-old colt would've shocked the world.

Now we'll never find out if he could've done it.

The 2012 winner of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness was forced to withdraw from the Belmont Stakes and retire from horse racing on Friday due to a sore front left tendon that could take up to six months to heal.

I'll Have Another was favored at 4-5 to win the Belmont and become only the 12th horse ever to win the Triple Crown, which would've put him in esteemed company with the likes of War Admiral, Secretariat and Seattle Slew.

But that wasn't meant to be.

When you hear a story like this, you immediately think of horses that have wrongly suffered injuries that break one's heart when it happens.

Names such as Barbaro and Eight Belles come to mind when this happens. Barbaro was the horse that won the 2006 Kentucky Derby by 6.5 lengths, and he had never lost a race. The next week in the Preakness, Barbaro's leg was shattered and despite fighting for eight months to stay alive, the beautiful horse was euthanized in January 2007.

Eight Belles' situation wasn't as cringe worthy, but just as sad. As one of only 39 fillies to ever run in the Kentucky Derby, the three-year-old horse finished second behind '08 Derby winner Big Brown. Moments after she crossed the line, Eight Belles collapsed and was euthanized as well.

There's no question that it would be wrong to compare two deaths to a retirement, but the impact and concern is just as high when discussing this sport.

The ratings and popularity haven't been associated with horse racing for the longest time, and the sport is desperately looking for another Triple Crown winner. To the average fan, that's how one can relate to horse racing—by pin-pointing a certain horse to racing history.

When you have approximately 120,000 people attending the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, it definitely puts a damper on the spirits of those who wish for this to happen.

The good news we can take from this is that I'll Have Another retired before any further complications could occur in order to ensure it won't face any continuous problems down the road. There's no question that trainer Doug O'Neill made the right call in this decision.

So as we now approach 35 years possibly without a Triple Crown winner, the question has to be raised once again—we will ever see this amazing occurrence ever again?

But when the health of the horse is taken into consideration, that matters more than some sort of history.