Matz still not over the disappointment he feels over Union Rags’ seventh place finish in the Derby
A horse at his prime, going to run in the biggest race of his career, and he loses in the first two jumps of the start of the race is all the more gutting, and trainer Michael Matz didn’t have to say it in words to show his disappointment over Union Rags getting affected by a false start – which ultimately cost him the Grade 1, $2 million Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs on 5 May, 2012.
The 3-year-old son of Dixie Union, Union Rags lost the race right at the beginning of the Derby, when he broke on to the right foot only to find that he was in the way of Dullahan, who bumped into him, and consequently jockey Julien Leparoux had to pull the colt back.
Sent as the 5 to 1 choice for the Kentucky Derby, Union Rags was beaten by a good 7 ½ lengths to winner I’ll Have Another in seventh place.
“I woke up the next day and I thought it was a nightmare,” Matz said. “I couldn’t have been feeling that I had the horse [better] prepared . . . Everything went in order except the last two minutes.”
Owned by Phyllis M. Wyeth in partnership with Chadds Ford Stable, Union Rags isn’t going to run in the 137th running of the Grade 1, $1 million Preakness Stakes at Pimlico on 19 May, 2012. It was decided almost right after the Kentucky Derby, though Matz will be represented by longshot Teeth of the Dog in the Preakness.
When things have gone right for Union Rags, he has gone on to perform brilliantly, especially at the time when he won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at a mile at Belmont Park and, as a three-year-old when he downed the field in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes at Gulfstream Park.
If everything goes according to plan, Union Rags will run in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes on 9 June, 2012, and there he will definitely be the first or the second choice.
Prior to the Kentucky Derby, Union Rags finished third in the Grade 1 Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park.
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