IEAH advisor Chris Brothers sheds light on a great Union Rags story
There’s always a good chance that there is a great story behind a great individual, and ranked as the top 3-year-old on the Triple Crown trail, Union Rags, is no exception. The colt as a yearling was considered to be a neat horse, but nobody could have predicted
that he would go on to achieve so much in so little time, and had that been know Union Rags would have stayed with his original owner, but he still is and that is where the twist comes in the story.
It all started when Chris Brothers, an advisor to the IEAH Stables pointed out Union Rags at the 2010 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling sale, and immediately fancied Union Rags as a great prospect for the IEAH Stables, hence recommending a purchase of
the bay colt.
Union Rags was then bought by the IEAH Stables from the Paramount Sale for only $145,000. The colt became part of the IEAH Stables pinhooking program, and eventually became a graduate from the program, but following the same year he was bought by the IEASH
Stables, and still in training, Eddie Woods, another agent for IEAH Stables thought it was a good idea to bag some money by selling Union Rags for a price of $390,000 at the Fasig-Tipton select sale.
With the twist of fate, Union Rags was bound to end up where he started from, as Phyllis Wyeth, who homebred the colt, had the irresistible desire to get the colt back, and as a juvenile, Union Rags got back to her original owner under the name of Chadds
Ford Stables.
“I remember he was much bigger than most of the other yearlings at Saratoga that year,” said Brothers of Union Rags. “He was a flashy horse and he had a good mind; he seemed very calm and very collected. He also had one of those walks that made your drool.”
Chris Brothers will be sitting in the stands, when on 31 March, 2012, Union Rags goes out for the Grade 1, $1 million Florida Derby, and will be looking at the race with great interest, as the colt grows near to the biggest race of his career, the Grade 1 Kentucky
Derby.
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