Union Rags posts an impressive work before tackling Hansen in the Fountain of Youth Stakes
The horseracing world is going to be rocked when the two juvenile protagonists of the past year battle it out for supremacy in their respective sophomore season, and these two main characters are Hansen and Union Rags, who will write the script of their
division as the year unfold.
It was Hansen, who was expected to at least keep going with the same momentum he entered the new campaign, but his perfect record held up as a 2-year-old was tainted by Todd Pletcher’s new sensation, Algorithms, in the Grade 3 Holy Bull Stakes.
Obviously people who back the colt would take it as a minor setback, and in reality it may be so, but the Union Rags side of the contingent would look at it as a c***k in the armour, ready to be exploited the next time these two rampant sophomores lock horns.
The much awaited showdown will go down at Gulfstream Park, over the same distance where Hansen defeated Union Rags, in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last season, a distance of 1 1/16 miles.
Michael Maker trained, Hansen’s approach is to take the race by the scruff of the neck by taking the lead early in the race, dictate the pace and still have enough in his big engine to power down the stretch and post massive victories over his opponents.
That’s the Hallmark of the colt, but the technique in the Holy Bull was exploited and that’s what Union Rags would be looking to do in a longer distance than 1 mile, on which Hansen got defeated earlier in the season.
The two will meet in the Grade 2 Fountain of Youth Stakes over at 1 1/16 miles. The race will mark as Union Rags’ seasonal debut, while Hansen’s second start, exiting a second place finish in the Holy Bull Stakes.
Union Rags has been preparing well ahead of his debut, and recently turned in a work of a solid half mile in 48 3/5 seconds at Palm Meadows on 6 February, 2012.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise, as Union Rags’ work was the fastest among 27 at the same distance.
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