I’ll Have Another was a Kentucky-bred, but California claimed him as its own. Based in the Golden State throughout his career with trainer Doug O’Neill, I’ll Have Another won the state’s major Kentucky Derby prep, the Santa Anita Derby, and then made a Triple Crown run that infamously ended on the eve of the Belmont Stakes. I’ll Have Another now returns to his adopted home state for the next phase of his career. The stallion, who has spent his entire stud career to this point in Japan, has been repatriated by Ballena Vista Farm of Ramona, Calif., to stand there beginning with the 2019 season. This is a major coup for the regional program, as I’ll Have Another’s racetrack performances make him among the most accomplished stallions in the state, and his progeny performance would make him a leader among California general sires by all progeny conception areas. “I truly consider bringing champion I’ll Have Another back to the States as one of the most satisfying and one of the best things I’ve ever done in the Thoroughbred industry,” Ballena Vista owner Donald Cohn said. “He is a magnificent specimen and a true champion racehorse, the likes of what we in California have never had the opportunity to stand.” I’ll Have Another, a son of Flower Alley bred by Harvey Clarke, was an $11,000 Keeneland September yearling. The following year, bloodstock agent Dennis O’Neill purchased him for a bargain $35,000 out of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co.’s April sale of 2-year-olds in training, earmarked for owner J. Paul Reddam, who employs Dennis’s brother Doug O’Neill as a trainer. I’ll Have Another won his maiden at first asking in July 2011 at Hollywood Park, then finished second to Creative Cause, who would go on to become a Grade 1 winner and a familiar foe, in the Grade 2 Best Pal Stakes. He then headed east for the first time to contest the Grade 1 Hopeful Stakes, and his 2-year-old campaign ended there, as he finished sixth on a muddy track and was later shelved with sore shins. I’ll Have Another returned to the races five months later with a new rider, the unheralded Mario Gutierrez. He won the Grade 2 Robert B. Lewis Stakes by 2 3/4 lengths at Santa Anita, then won the Santa Anita Derby by a nose over Creative Cause. In the Kentucky Derby, I’ll Have Another broke from post 19 in the full field of 20 and rallied in the stretch to catch favored Bodemeister, winning by 1 1/2 lengths going away. Two weeks later, he drove by Bodemeister, who was again sent off as the favorite, to win the Preakness Stakes by a neck, setting himself up for a Triple Crown bid three weeks later in the Belmont Stakes. At the time, Affirmed, in 1978, still reigned as the last Triple Crown winner. However, the day before the Belmont, I’ll Have Another’s connections made the shocking announcement that the colt had been scratched from the race with the beginnings of a tendon injury in his left foreleg. With the injury requiring three to six months before the colt could have resumed training, he also was immediately retired. I’ll Have Another joined Burgoo King (1932) and Bold Venture (1936) as the only horses to have won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness, but not compete in the Belmont. “I’m afraid history is going to have to wait for another day,” Reddam said at a press conference on the Belmont backstretch that day. “We tried to be quiet, but I really thought he was going to run off and really show something. . . . We’re all a bit shocked, but we have to do what’s best for the horse. If he can’t compete at the top level . . . he’s done enough.” I’ll Have Another – who was eventually voted the Eclipse Award champion 3-year-old male for the season – returned to O’Neill’s base at Hollywood Park while stud plans were finalized. In June, Reddam announced that he had reached a deal with Big Red Farm on the island of Hokkaido, Japan, to stand his star colorbearer. Reddam told Daily Racing Form that Big Red Farm paid $10 million, topping another Japanese farm’s $9 million offer. Both were well above what American farms had bid. In 2018, I’ll Have Another stood for a little over $20,000. I’ll Have Another’s stud record has been solid, if not spectacular. Through November, 219 of his 227 foals of racing age, or 96 percent, had started, resulting in 128 individual winners, a 58 percent winners-from-starters strike rate. His first crop of 2-year-olds in 2016 was led by the filly Sigrun, who finished third in the Group 3 Artemis Stakes in her second start. That helped I’ll Have Another finish as the second-leading freshman sire of the season in Japan, behind Rulership. The following spring, another member of that first crop, Hypernova, finished third behind Epicharis in the Hyacinth Stakes. Later in the year, second-crop daughter Win Gerbera finished second in the Group 3 Hakodate Nisai Stakes, beaten a head in her second start. I’ll Have Another will stand for an advertised fee of $6,000 in 2019 as the property of Ballena Vista, which has made major moves to bolster its stallion roster in recent years. In 2015, the farm brought in Bluegrass Cat, who had already found success in Kentucky and New York. With his first California-sired foals now racing, Bluegrass Cat leads the state’s general sires list by earnings among stallions with locally sired progeny, emerging among the leaders in a state with a void at the top of the market following the deaths of leading sires Unusual Heat and Lucky Pulpit in 2017. Ballena Vista, which purchased Eddington from Claiborne Farm in 2013, added Grade 2 winner Texas Ryano to its roster this season. In 2019, the farm is set to debut multiple stakes winner Conquest Fahrenheit, a son of the late Scat Daddy.