Early Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) favorite Union Rags had his first work of his 3-year-old season Jan. 11 at Palm Meadows, breezing an easy three furlongs in :38 1/5.
“It was pretty non-eventful. He just went an easy three-eighths and galloped out very easily,” Matz said.
Matz said Union Rags had a little less than two months off after his runner-up finish in the Nov. 5 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (gr. I). The son of Dixie Union came to Palm Meadows about 10 days ago after being turned out at Skara Glen Farm in Wellington, Fla.
“He was out there and we were just hacking him around,” Matz said. “They have a nice grass jumping field and a little track around it. We were exercising him there and he was enjoying himself.”
To read an interview with Michael Matz on Union Rags please go here.
Owned and bred by Phyllis Wyeth’s Chadds Ford Stable, Union Rags won three of four starts in 2011 including the Saratoga Special (gr. II) and Champagne Stakes (gr. I). He is a finalist for champion 2-year-old male at the Jan. 16 Eclipse Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif.
As of Jan. 9, Union Rags was listed as the 12-1 Kentucky Derby future book favorite at Wynn Casino in Las Vegas.