Union Rags Retires

The official announcement came Saturday that Union Rags, the 2012 winner of The Belmont Stakes, has been retired due to injury.  While it had previously been hoped that Union Rags would be allowed to heal and then come back to race as a four year old, the announcement makes it clear that the son of Dixie Union will no longer compete on the track.


Would it be fair to call a career as successful as Union Rags' a disappointment?  This is a horse that finished out of the money only once in his career, in the 2012 Kentucky Derby.  This is a horse that won five of his eight career starts, including his debut (over a field that included Mark Valeski, winner of the 2012 Peter Pan Stakes and Place horse in both the 2012 Risen Star Stakes and the 2012 Louisiana Derby); the 2011 Saratoga Special (over a group that included multiple Graded Stakes winner Trinniberg); the 2012 Fountain of Youth Stakes; and the previously mentioned Belmont Stakes.


That's quite a resume; and yet, somehow, it seems like it should have been better.  Perhaps that's unreasonable; perhaps it's just plain silly.  But in much the same way some baseball fans look at Mickey Mantle's Hall of Fame career and wonder what might have been, I must be honest and say that I have similar feelings regarding Union Rags career.


Perhaps the primary reason for feeling the way I do is the way Union Rags won the 2011 Champagne Stakes,  I've posted the video below, so that you can see for yourself the remarkable effort this horse made to capture his first Grade 1 victory.

Truly an outstanding performance by the eventual Belmont Stakes winner; yet it set expectations for his future so high as to be, perhaps, unreasonable.  In hindsight, it's perhaps best viewed for the remarkable race that it was, rather than being judged as a portend of things to come.


Good luck to Union Rags and his connections as he moves on to stud duty.


The full Associated Press story on Union Rags' retirement may be found here.


Peace and Love,


Jimbo