John Velazquez was able to get Union Rags through on the rail to nip Paynter and jockey Mike Smith.
Sneak preview of tomorrow’s follow-up story to Saturday’s Belmont Stakes. Adam Coglianese/NYRA photos
ELMONT, N.Y. – Even as others jumped off the bandwagon, trainer Michael Matz said he never lost confidence that Union Rags was a superior racehorse – a faith justified when Phyllis Wyeth’s colt captured Saturday’s 144th Belmont Stakes by a short neck over front-running Paynter at Belmont Park.
“I just thought this horse needed to run in one of these Triple Crown races,” Matz said in a phone interview with reporters. “I wasn’t sure with the mile and a half – like I’m sure all the other trainers were not sure. We did get the mile and a half good enough. He deserved a chance to do that, and I’m glad we did.”
Matz said at no point in the stretch did he feel confident Union Rags would win, with jockey John Velazquez having to squeeze past Paynter in the last 70 yards.
“It was an awfully small hole for such a big horse to get through,” he said. “I’ve got to give him and Johnny credit. They got it done. I didn’t know if he was going to get there or not.”
Velazquez rode Union Rags for the first time after the colt finished a troubled third in the Florida Derby and troubled seventh in the Kentucky Derby.
Velazquez had repeatedly predicted that the Belmont would be “a very interesting race.” And it sure was – even without the suddenly retired Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another — showcasing a tactically dramatic stretch run between Hall of Fame inductee (Velazquez) and Hall of Famer Mike Smith on Paynter.
“There wasn’t much room to be in there,” Velazquez said. “I anticipated that he was going to hit (left-handed), and he was going to drift just enough for me to get in there. You have to have the horse to do it; otherwise it doesn’t work. Not every horse would do that.”
Velazquez, winning the Belmont for a second time before his adopted hometown, said Union Rags is “a very special horse.”
Johnny V. called Union Rags a "very special horse"
“People forgot about this horse, but he was one of the top choices for the Derby,” he said. “He had a bad race for the Derby and everybody forgot about him, got off the bandwagon. We know there are many good horses in the Derby who don’t run well, for whatever reason. He was one of them.”
Union Rags gave Velazquez a picture-perfect rail ride.
“The only problem we faced was coming to the eighth pole and whether I was going to go outside or inside Paynter,” Velazquez said. “My only chance to win it was to stay in there. But I never had to slow him down; I was always going forward. If I had to steady him at the eighth pole, he would never have gotten there. He would have been third, probably.”
Union Rags left Belmont Park Saturday evening after the traffic had cleared, arriving at Matz’ base in Fair Hill, Md., by 1 a.m. Sunday. Matz said the next objective will be races such as Monmouth Park’s July 29 Haskell or Saratoga’s July 28 Jim Dandy or Aug. 25 Travers.
I’ll Have Another will participate in one more race, albeit it not on the track. That’s to hope he did enough going 4 for 4 and winning three Grade I events to hang on in absentia for the 3-year-old championship (and possibly, if not very likely, Horse of the Year).
The vote has gone both ways in recent years. The Matz-trained Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, who suffered eventually fatal injuries in the Preakness, lost the divisional championship to Bernardini, who won the Preakness, Travers and Jockey Club Gold Cup against older horses. Last year’s Derby winner Animal Kingdom did not race after being injured in the Belmont, but he still did enough to get the Eclipse Award in a season where no horse dominated.
“It all depends how we finish the season,” Matz said. “They ran one time against each other. I’ll Have Another was very impressive in the two (Triple Crown) races he ran. So was (Derby and Preakness runner-up) Bodemeister. I was so confused with the voting last year for 2-year-old champion, so who knows what can go on?
“We’re not throwing in the towel by any means.”
Dale Romans, trainer of beaten Belmont favorite Dullahan (who finished seventh), thinks Union Rags has the potential to overcome I’ll Have Another for the championship.
“He had a couple of rough races lately, but he looked like his old self (Saturday),” he said. “He’s as good as anybody.”
Chad Brown, trainer of fourth-place Street Life agreed.
“It was an outstanding day of racing that Belmont Park put on, and I think the Belmont Stakes in particular was an outstanding race,” Brown said. “Yeah, we lost a major player in I’ll Have Another, and everyone was disappointed with that. However, I think the best horse won the race. Union Rags showed at 2 that he was one of the best horses in the crop, if not the best horse. I think he validated that again Saturday. He’s going to be a force to be reckoned with the rest of the y ear.”
Trainer Bob Baffert said that Paynter lost his left hind shoe in the race. “I don’t know when it happened, but it must have been hear the end,” he said.
Paynter will return to California today(((Monday)), as is I’ll Have Another. Baffert said Paynter will return to New York to point toward the Travers, with the Jim Dandy possible. “We have Bodemeister for the Haskell,” he said.
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