Gutierrez out to prove critics wrong

Of all of Mario Gutierrez's artful moves over the past four weeks of the 2012 Triple Crown, perhaps the one that has served him best has been the simple shrug-and-smile.

When many people questioned how a virtually unknown jockey in his first Kentucky Derby could possibly get his mount home from post No. 19, Gutierrez, 25, responded by giving I'll Have Another a flawless ride on the first Saturday in May.

If the pressure of sudden expectations were getting to the soft-spoken jockey, it wasn't apparent in the confident way he guided his charge through one of the great stretch runs in Preakness Stakes history two weeks later.

Even after having done everything right so far, Gutierrez has some pointing to his inexperience as the weak link in I'll Have Another's bid to become the first Triple Crown champion in 34 years in Saturday's Belmont Stakes.