Union Rags out for remainder of.. life
 

@DRFOakford: #UnionRags will miss balance of '12 season due to tendon injury, Russell Jones says. He just got word from trainer M Matz while at #julysale

@DRFOakford: Jones says #UnionRags owner evaluating options in light of tendon injury.

@DRFOakford: #UnionRags team to provide statement 2moro a.m. detailing injury from vet Kathy Anderson at Fair Hill.

Damn it :wf

unfortunate but overrated

Well hell if IHA can generate 10 million....

"Minor tendon injury" seems like an oxymoron. Unlike I'll Have Another, a horse like Union Rags has a vacuum to fill in the market after the death of his sire (and grandsire, Dixieland Band in the same year). No KY sons of Dixie Union in Bloodhorse's Stallion Register. Dixie Chatter's in CA for $5,000, but even though he's a G1 winning 2yo, it's not at the level of Union Rags who was very nearly a champion and then goes on to win the Belmont. High Cotton's in FL for $5,000.

UR's got a strong female family, he's physically impressive, and he's precocious but ran in the classics. I wish he had cracked a 100 Beyer, but 95 and 96 were his tops right? I'm sure Mrs. Wyeth would love to keep him going, but tendons are dicey propositions as we saw with IHA, and I don't see how a stud farm won't get a truck full of money backed up to the barn asap.

Lane's End stood Dixie Union. You'd think they'd be interested here if they want a Dixie Union option in KY. They've got Grasshopper, but he's in Texas.

With a gun to my head and the choice of sending my mare to UR or IHA, everything else being equal, I'd probably roll the dice and go to IHA.

My thoughts are that UR is slightly more likely to be a useful stallion, but IHA has a much bigger chance of being a big time stallion. Mostly because UR has about a 0% chance of being huge.

UR has small lesion in his high suspensory,which leaves him with a better chance of returning to the track and hopefully not getting zoomed off the the breeding shed.


http://msn.foxsports.com/horseracing...-injury-071112

He's done enough. I'm no vet, but a lesion is a lesion. How fast could they possibly get him back? If they bring him back, aren't they looking at next summer? What's the point?

its not like he is that good anyway.

All lesions are not the same regarding future prognosis. This is an easy and minor lesion to heal, but yes, it would be six months before he could be back - ligaments just take a long healing time.

Not everyone is eager to discard what they have, and go on to the next hot young hopeful prospect. Some still do race for fun. I personally like horses having long careers. But long careers include plenty of months off for routine R & R, and special time off for healing of the normal aches and strains of being an athlete.

no, he hasn't. with the rush to the shed with so many horses, i'd rather they made the attempt to bring him back. plenty of time in future for him to stand at stud.


edit--just saw this in the bloodhorse article:



'The prognosis is four to six months off, and there should be no sign of it after that. He'll go to New Bolton (Medical Center) today to have another ultrasound."

Prognosis is good for the colt, a homebred son of Dixie Union owned by Phyllis Wyeth, to return to racing next year.'



Read more on BloodHorse.com: http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...#ixzz20KrIte74

Retires- errrrr rests- with some of his reputation which is better than I think he would have had if he kept racing and moved on to face older horses later in the year.

He's done enough . . . .

IMO I think he will be back; he is the best the owner has had, she is old school, Michael Matz wants him back...he has more to prove although he is top 2 year old, successful at 3, and is gorgeous with pedigree for success at stud; hope I am right, :).

Attachment 2013

FTFY

I know, they have to be crazy to bring him back and race him at the ripe old age of four...................:rolleyes:

The issue is not if they are going to run him next year just how many 50k opt claiming events will he get dusted in before he is retired

2013 version of Drosselmeyer?

He just seems like a colt that was best 2 and will never get worse or better. Now if Mott trained him maybe he could be a Drosselmeyer. Makes you wonder how good Barbaro really was for Matz to have been so successful.

Barbaro was going to be an all time great.

At least of the last 25 years or so anyways.

David Grening ‏@DRFGrening
Belmont winner Union Rags has been retired, according to the Philadelphia Daily News

Guessing not too many people will be suprised by this development.

and so much for that.

I'm not sure I can get through the day now. Amazing the number of recent Belmont winners that never win another race.

That's great news. Honestly, I would like to see him come back. I'll probably be betting against him, but a comeback would still be nice.

It probably just means that Matz hasn't yet been informed of Union Rags stud deal.

I would be very surprised if he ever races again.

and you're probably right. i think every time i see a horse announced as going on the shelf for a bit is just a way to let people know there's an issue, and gauge interest. have phones been ringing with deals proposed? looks like there have been.
and we all know that horses don't always come back the same. so, risk vs reward. it's always a crunching of numbers at the end.

Retired

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-raci...n-rags-retired

Sissies :mad:

The only thing worse than the retirements is reading the quotes in the faux articles.

Will this be the new record for the earliest retirements for the entire Triple Crown winners in a given crop?

"The horse is very much in the limelight as far as breeders go at this moment, and they felt like it would be a challenge and a risk to be back in this position next year."


just like i thought.

count fleet retired right after the belmont. did majestic prince run again after his?

at any rate, very fast this year.

Where, in Bangladesh?

lol maybe japan?

no idea. i wonder who is ringing them up about him tho. knowing that young, unproven sires are far from hot right now, and that's he's certainly not the top 3 yo colt from the crop, or the best bred....i can't help but wonder who is expressing so much interest.
guess we'll find out when they announce the stud deal.
but yeah, that quote from the b'horse article got a chuckle out of me. i guess they weighed their options-and hell, if IHA can get 10 mill, maybe rags can too?

Not the best bred? He's certainly not blue collar either. Nevermind that, unlike IHA, his successful sire and grandsire are both dead and no competition. Throw a rock at his female family and you'll hit GSW/GSP/SWs and sires/producers of the same. They're not all champions (well, his 3rd dam is and his 2nd dam set a NTR against Darby Creek Road), but enough of them have enough accomplishments I don't see why it's laughable that he'd be getting interest. He's got precocity but won a classic race. What's not to like? The only thing that comes immediately to mind is his lack of a triple digit Beyer.

i'll give you count fleet, but majestic prince did not win the triple crown. arts and letters did, and he continued to race.

The new thread title makes it sound like he just died.