Let's try this again....

For those of you not familiar, a long time ago I used to have this blog where I explained horse racing to the largely non-horse enthusiast crowd...and then I stopped. Why?

Becuase it wasn't Triple Crown trail time anymore. And I have to admit, even I have problems keeping my attention on the sport when it's not leading up to one of its dual-annual jewels (those being the Triple Crown and the Breeder's Cup). So for years I let this blog languish and instead posted my horse racing commentary on Facebook.

So this year as I was gearing up for my first Facebook note on the 2012 Triple Crown hopefuls, it suddenly occured to me that what I was doing was stupid. That's what this blog is for!

So here I am again.

For now, anyways.

Screw it, let's get to the pretty horsies.

Union Rags (Dixie Union, out of Tempo by GoneWest

This is Union Rags. He's currently my Derby favorite. He was my Derby favorite last year. That means he is doomed to never win the race. Still, since he's my favorite, and since he'll be racing in his 3-year old debut this Saturday, I figured I'd start with him. First,let's do the pedigree analysis.

Union Rags is a son of Dixie Union, who is not what we would generally consider to be a stallion that breeds distance runners. Nor is his broodmare sire (that's his maternal grandaddy, for those of you not in the know), Gone West, know for passing on the ability to get the trditional Derby distance of a mile and a quarter. Not only that, but he's inbred 3x4 to Northern Dancer, and 4x3 to Mr. Prospector. What's that mean? It means he's got a not insignificant amount of inbreeding going on!

Generally, I don't like to pick Derby horses with a lot of speed influences in their pedigree as I think it's asking sprinting horses to go too far. I also don't normally like horses with even half the inbreeding currently present in Union Rags' ancestry. Why? Well, I'm a biologist. We tend to shy away from inbreeding when we can. So why am I so interested in Union Rags?

Partly, its the fact that he does have a double dosage of the famous cross between Northern Dancer and Mr. Prospector, but more it's because of the way her runs. He does not run like a sprinting horse, he runs like a trueborn stayer. He's a late closer (which has hampered him a bit in his previous starts), and he may just be a "stretch running sprinter", but I personally don't believe it. I think this guy's got the scope to go a mile and quarter and win, and it seems I'm not the only one.

Union Rags' racing career began well, but with little fanfare, when he won a maiden special weight race at Delaware Park in mid July, 2011. Instead of giving him another chance at allowance level company, his connections decided to let him play with the big dogs and enetered him in the Saratoga Special (one of the more prestigious events for young two-year olds). Union Rags was up to the challenge and put a giant exclamation point next to his eventual victory, by winning the event by a 7+ length margin.

There was nothing else but to enter the young colt in the Champagne Stakes, next. The Champange, before the creation of the Breeder's Cup, used to be the premiere event for two-year olds in the fall, and it still draws the best horses in the countryas they prepare for their eventual entry in the Breeder's Cup Juvenile. Union Rags again left his competitors in the dust, winning by over 5 lengths. There was only one race left for him to conquer, one more time around the track to cement himself as the 2-year old champion and the early 2012 Derby favorite.

You can see where this is headed can't you?

Unfortunately, in the prestigious Breeder's Cup Juvenile, Union Rags hooked up with a sprightly little grey named Hansen. Like Union Rags, Hansen was also undefeated in 3 prior starts. Unlike Union Rags, he's a little speed demon who had never been headed (meaning, he'd never let another horse be in front of him in any of his races). Union Rags, a late closer, went wide on the turns and, most damning of all, swerved in the middle of his stretch drive (something he had done previously in the Saratoga Special as well) and lost by a nose.

This one blemish on his career did not deter his fans. He had lost by a nose to a speed horse who may never get beyond the mile and one sixteenth distance of the Juvenile, and after giving himself at least an extra 10 feet to run by his shenanigans in the stretch. Having worked hard all fall, he was sent to the farm for some R&R and to await the spring. His first start as a 3-year old will be tomorrow in the Fountain of Youth Stakes. There he'll be facing the imposing (Todd) Pletcher duo of Algorithms (who has already impressively won a stakes this year) and Discreet Dancer, not to mention a handful of other talented hopefuls that may be just waiting to break out.

Why else should you like Union Rags? Well first there's his trainer, Michael "I Walk Unscathed Out of Burning Passenger Jets" Matz. Matz is not my favorite trainer, but you can't argue he knows how to get a horse to the Derby winner's circle, nor that he knows horses in general. He's taking the same sort of "laid back" training approach with Union Rags as he did back in 2006 when Barbaro took the roses. You have to wonder, if it worked once, why not again? Also, there's his jockey. There was big news in the thoroughbred horse racing world when it was reported that Union Rags regular rider, Javier Castellano, decided to take the mount on Algorithms in the Fountain of Youth. Often, when a jock jumps off one horse in favor of a rival animal, it's generally considered to be evidence of his professional opinion as to their likelihood of winning. However, I'm not so sure Javier made the right choice, here. Regardless, Union Rags quickly picked up Julian Leparoux for his jockey, and I couldn't be more pleased. He's possibly my favorite rider for guiding late closers like Union Rags up to victory.

So is that enough reason to overlook a somewhat checkered pedigree? For me it is.


For now, anyways.