When I’ll Have Another attempts to become the 12th Triple Crown winner in racing history June 9 in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), he will be bucking more than the 34-year gap since the last one.

None of the previous horses with a chance to join the select group have had to deal with the sort of scrutiny or opposition that I’ll Have Another has so far endured.

The media circus, of course, was to be expected as racing closes in on a possible date with destiny. Hundreds of reporters and photographers have been on the Belmont Park grounds in the week leading up to the race. The anticipation only seems to intensify with each failed attempt to follow Affirmed, the 1978 Triple Crown winner, into the record book. Trainer Doug O’Neill and jockey Mario Gutierrez at times appear to be under siege and I’ll Have Another must surely wonder what all the commotion is about.

O’Neill, friendly and accommodating with reporters, seems to be taking things in stride. But what about the 25-year-old Gutierrez, a native of Mexico who has never experienced anything close to this sort of fish bowl? One cannot help but think of Ron Franklin, the young jockey whose ride aboard Spectacular Bid in the 1979 Belmont was blamed for costing the sleek gray the Triple Crown