"I'll Have Another became the 12th horse since 1978 to win the first two legs of the elusive Triple Crown. He did it the same way that he won the Derby -- he used his tactical speed to gain the position that Mario Gutierrez wanted, cruised along without expending too much energy, and closed relentlessly to run down a loose-on-an-easy lead Bodemeister. He now goes on to the Belmont with the right running style and pedigree to do what the last 11 could not."

"Starting in 1979, when Spectacular Bid failed in the Belmont, the count is 0-for-11. It's the same race, the same track and, for the most part, the same caliber of horses, yet the challenge has become virtually impossible. Why? Theories abound, but I believe it has everything to do with how the modern horse is handled. Three races in five weeks was no big deal for the horses of the '30s through the '70s, but these horses just can't handle it."

"We’ll maintain the same type of exercise that he’s had," O’Neill said. "There’s the old line about you can’t take a sprinter and train him two miles and make a router out of him and you can’t take a router and work them three-eighths every week and make a sprinter out of him. If we’ve got a true route horse, which we do, he’s going to maintain his fitness and his exercise. If they can go a mile and a half, they will. And he will."

Garrett Gomez on the Belmont: "Stuff like this happens a lot of times in the bigger races. Everybody doesn't ride the same as they normally do. Trainers don't exactly give the same instructions. Sometimes in the bigger races some guys want to be a little more aggressive and some don't, so the combination of the two makes things work out completely different than you think they will." Possibly explains why it was Dunkirk, not Charitable Man, on the lead.

Meghan O'Rourke on the 2007 Belmont Stakes - Slate Magazine