Union Rags headed for retirement

Union Rags became a potential Kentucky Derby horse during the 2011 Saratoga meet. As the 2012 Saratoga meet opened Friday, Union Rags' owner Phyllis Wyeth made the decision to retire her Belmont Stakes winner.

While preparing the colt for the July 29 Haskell Invitational, trainer Michael Matz noticed a leg issue. It was quickly determined there was a ligament problem that would require months of rest. So, Union Rags was declared out for the balance of the 2012 season. Now, the big colt is gone forever, his owner searching for a stallion deal with one of the major Kentucky farms.

"No decision has been reached on that," Wyeth's advisor Russell Jones said. "This is the right time of the year to be talking to these guys so she wants to have the word out there that we're moving ahead, that the decision has been made."

Matz was really hoping the colt would come back and run in 2013. Not going to happen. Union Rags may have been able to make it back in top form, but there was no guarantee.

"I don't know what the numbers might look like,'' said Jones of a potential stallion deal. "I do know she's made the decision to go forward with this decision for the rest of his life."

If Union Rags had not gotten hurt 2 weeks ago, he would have been in great position to grab some major purses this summer. Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I'll Have Another was retired the day before the Belmont. Bodemeister, runner-up in the Derby and Preakness, has been declared out of the Haskell with a temperature.

"We wish we had a sound horse with what's going on," Jones said.

But they don't. Union Rags will finish his career with eight starts, four in 2011, four in 2012. The colt earned nearly $1.8 million, including that memorable Belmont Stakes. He was unlucky not to win the 2011 Breeders' Cup Juvenile and was eliminated at the start of the Derby. He finished with four stakes wins, but, like Smarty Jones and Afleet Alex before him, Union Rags got to the Belmont Stakes and no farther.