While his former boss, trainer D. Wayne Lukas, and other colleagues make plans for Pimlico, trainer Dallas Stewart is enjoying the afterglow of a Derby in which he saddled the longshot runner-up, Golden Soul.
Trainer Todd Pletcher won the 2007 Belmont Stakes with the filly Rags to Riches. He may try to do it again with Unlimited Budget and/or Dreaming of Julia, the third- and fourth-place finishers in last Friday’s Kentucky Oaks.
Union Rags has been retired from racing because of the suspensory injury that was diagnosed a month after the colt won the June 9 Belmont Stakes. Russell Jones, a longtime racing manager and adviser for owner Phyllis Wyeth, confirmed that Union Rags has made his final start and will begin his stud career in 2013 at a farm yet to be determined.
The final rating for the race portion of the Belmont Stakes broadcast on NBC on Saturday was a 4.8 with an 11 share, according to the network. The rating was up 12 percent compared to a 4.3 rating for the race portion of last year’s broadcast, and the share this year was up 10 percent compared to last year’s broadcast.
Although Union Rags and I’ll Have Another were the stars of this year’s Triple Crown, both had unfulfilling experiences that will always have their connections, and many others, wondering what might have been.
Union Rags, who won the 144th Belmont Stakes here at Belmont Park on Saturday, was back in his stall at the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland by 1 a.m. early Sunday and will get a brief vacation before pointing for major summer races, trainer Michael Matz said Sunday.
The overnight rating for the race portion of the Belmont Stakes broadcast on NBC on Saturday evening was a 5.4, up 13 percent over the rating last year, according to the network. Share was a 13, up 18 percent compared with the share for last year, the network said.
Business figures for this year’s Belmont Stakes at Belmont Park posted across-the-board gains compared to last year’s Belmont, according to figures distributed late Saturday by the New York Racing Association.
John Velazquez once again successfully used an unusual strategy for winning Triple Crown races: simply to be available and in the right place at the right time.
In the jam-packed aisle of the Belmont Park box seat section, not long after the horses went under the wire in the 144th Belmont Stakes, Paul Reddam flattened himself against the railing as Michael Matz and the Union Rags entourage squeezed by, on the way to the winner’s circle. Matz paused long enough to commiserate once again with Reddam, but Reddam would have none of it. "You’ve got a wonderful colt,” Reddam told the trainer.
