Sports

‘Another’ tough spot for Triple Crown hopeful

NUMBERS GAME: The draw board is filled with the race numbers for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. (Anthony J. Causi)

NUMBERS GAME: The draw board is filled with the race numbers for Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. (Anthony J. Causi)

Three’s company! After drawing post 19 of 20 in the Kentucky Derby and post 9 of 11 in the Preakness, Triple Crown hopeful I’ll Have Another will be following a similar path in Saturday’s Belmont Stakes when he breaks from post 11 in a field of 12 racing 1 1⁄2 miles in the 144th “Test of the Champion.”

The one big difference is I’ll Have Another, who has gone off at odds ranging from 3-1 in the Preakness to 43-1 when he won the Robert Lewis in his first start this year, is 4-5 on the morning line, and will be favored for the first time in his career.

“He’s doing great,” trainer Doug O’Neill said. “He’s continued to gallop good. His energy has been good. His appetite has been strong. He’s handled this whole journey as good as you could possibly ask a horse, and he hasn’t lost a bit of his flesh.

“His coat continues to shine. So we couldn’t ask for him to be coming into this any better.”

That’s great news for the millions of diehard racing fans and casual observers who will be glued to NBC’s telecast at the 6:35 p.m. post time, hoping to see I’ll Have Another make history as the first Triple Crown winner since Affirmed 34 years ago.

But the 10 horsemen lining up to beat him (Ken McPeek runs an entry of Atigun and Unstoppable U) are not coming into this classic star-struck.

“None at all,” said Dale Romans, who trains 5-1 second-choice Dullahan, when asked if he had mixed emotions about trying to stop the Triple Crown. “I’d like to have 120,000 people booing me on the way out. I can handle it. We owe it to the other Triple Crown winners to make him earn it.”

Dullahan — who lost to I’ll Have Another the only time they met, when he finished fast for third in the Derby, beaten 1 1⁄2 lengths — was sired by the prophetically named Even the Score.

Third choice at 6-1 is Union Rags, the Derby future favorite, who had bad racing luck in the Florida Derby (finishing third) and Kentucky Derby (seventh).

“I don’t think you’ve seen the real Union Rags in the last two races,” said trainer Michael Matz. “He never got a chance to run. He was just bottled up the whole time and didn’t get to use his stride. You saw the results.”

Matz said the big colt’s new rider, John Velazquez, wasn’t thrilled with drawing post 3, but told the trainer: “If he runs the way he worked Sunday (five furlongs in :59), I don’t think it matters what post it is.”

Of the remaining entrants, Paynter and Street Life are 8-1 and 12-1, respectively. The other seven are 20-1 and up.

On paper, there isn’t a ton of early speed in the race. McPeek — whose Sarava paid $142.50 upsetting War Emblem’s bid for the Triple Crown in 2002, the highest payoff in Belmont history — sees Unstoppable U, who won both his starts on the front end, setting the pace again.

“I really do,” McPeek said. “Of course, he’s not that seasoned, but he is very talented. Of course, it’s a big jump in class. But weirder things have happened.”

Paynter, if he’s not on the early lead under Mike Smith, figures to be breathing down the neck of whichever horse is. Trained by Bob Baffert and owned by Ahmed Zayat, he is their pinch-hitter for Bodemeister, I’ll Have Another’s arch-rival through the first two jewels of the Triple Crown, when he finished second in the Derby and Preakness after setting the pace into the final half-furlong.

“We were just beaten by a better horse, fair and square,” Zayat said.

ed.fountaine@nypost.com