Photo: NYRA, Adam Coglianese
Union Rags, the 6-1 third choice on the morning line behind
Triple Crown hopeful I’ll Have Another (4-5) and Dullahan (5-1) for
Saturday’s Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes, arrived at Belmont Park shortly after 11 a.m. and was
quickly settled into to the stakes barn.
All the Belmont Stakes contenders were required to be in the special
stakes barn by mid day on Wednesday.
Trainer Michael Matz said Union Rags, who drew post position 3 for the
1 ½-mile race, departed Fair Hill training center in Elkton, Md.,
around 7:45 a.m.
“We were the first ones on the track at Fair Hill – we were
waiting to get on it at 5:30,” said Matz. “He galloped a mile, we
got him back, cooled him out, gave him something to eat, got him on the van and
tried to be here before 12 o’clock. The driver did a wonderful
job.”
Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another was the
last of the 12 Belmont
contenders to arrive at the barn. Trailed by a phalanx of reporters, cameramen
and videographers, I’ll Have Another pranced down the horse path before
stepping into the shedrow at 12:04 p.m. following a short walk from Mark
Hennig’s barn, where he had been stabled since May 20.
“No complaints, no hurdles,” said trainer Doug
O’Neill. “He’s being good.”
Saturday, I’ll Have Another will attempt to become the 12th
horse to win the Triple Crown and first in 34 years. Since Affirmed swept the
series in 1978, 11 horses have tried and failed to add the Belmont Stakes to
their Kentucky Derby and Preakness victories, most recently Big Brown in 2008.