Rags Go Braugh!

As most native Irishmen and women will tell you, Saint Patrick's Day is a much bigger deal in the United States than in the native homeland. No city in Ireland paints the river green like our Chicago and there is no St. Patrick's Day parade as old as our New York City version that began in 1762 - 14 years before we were the United States of America.

But a special St. Patty's Day gift arrived in Ireland Wednesday when 2007 Belmont Stakes winner Rags to Riches gave birth to a colt by 2,000 Guineas and Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Henrythenavigator.

Rags to Riches is best remembered for deafeating future Horse of the Year and Preakness (gr. 1) winner Curlin in the 2007 Belmont Stakes (gr. 1). It was the first time a filly had taken the prestigious race since Tanya in 1905 and only third time since the filly Ruthless won the first Belmont in 1867. As Belmont Park track announcer Tom Durkin so famously said as she passed the finish line, "Rags to Riches has beaten Curlin and a hundred years of Belmont history!"

2007 Belmont Stakes



That year the Todd Pletcher-trained Rags To Riches also won the Santa Anita Oaks (gr. 1) and Kentucky Oaks (gr. 1) and was named the Champion Three-Year-Old Filly of 2007.

After her retirement in 2008, Rags to Riches was sent to broodmare duty at Ashford Stud in Versailles, Kentucky where she produced her first foal last year, a filly by Giant's Causeway named Riches Causeway. According to bloodhorse.com, Rags to Riches will stay in Ireland and is now scheduled to be bred to Galileo, winner of the group 1 Epsom Derby, Irish Derby Stakes, King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 2001.

With the special arrival of a St. Patrick's Day foal in Ireland out of a champion like Rags To Riches, we can only hope that the owners are a bit more creative on their second try at naming her foals after the Riches Causeway tag in their first attempt. Yah-ah-ah-w-w-n!

Rags go Braugh was the first to come to my mind but I have since thought of Henrytheleprachaun, Hank's Pot of Gold, Henry the Rich, and a whole list of others. But I'd love to hear some other suggestions.

Florida Derby May Rule
The first grade 1 prep race for the Kentucky Derby presented by Yum takes place Saturday at Gulfstream Park in the $750,000 Florida Derby.

A race that has produced five of the last 20 Derby winners and two of the last four in Big Brown and Barbaro, the 2010 version has been wrought with the Florida defections. The first three finishers in the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. 2), the local prep race for the Florida Derby, have all headed elsewhere to make their final start before the Kentucky Derby.

Although trainer Todd Pletcher is sending Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. 2) winner Eskendereya to New York for the Wood Memorial in two weeks, he leaves Rule in the Florida for the 1-1/8 mile Florida Derby.

Rule is coming off of a front-running victory in the grade 3 Sam F. Davis Stakes at Tampa Bay Downs February 13 over Schoolyard Dreams, the apparent winner of last weekend's Tampa Bay Derby before losing a photo finish to Odysseus. Rule is also trying to add to a four-race winning streak that goes back to last year and includes wins in the Jean Lafitte Futurity and Delta Jackpot (gr. 3) at Delta Downs in Louisiana.

Although Rule may get the financial attention as the favorite, Lentenor (right) will get the sentimental support. A full brother to the ill-fated Barbaro, who won this race and the Kentucky Derby, Lentenor will also run under the green, blue and white silks of Lael Stables, and made famous by his brother. This will the first time on dirt and in stakes company for Lentenor, who has only a win over maidens on the Gulfstream turf course Jan. 20 and a second in a Feb. 17 allowance race on his 2010 record.

The fourth, fifth and sixth place finishers in the Fountain of Youth, Ice Box, Pleasant Prince and Pulsion respectively, are also hoping for some significant improvement and a possible ticket to Kentucky.

Belmont Stakes, The Test of Champions

The Belmont Stakes is known as "The Test of Champions." That moniker is attributed mostly to the long, 1-1/2 mile distance of the Belmont but it is the race's place in the racing schedule that also makes it an examination of endurance and stamina.

The Kentucky Derby is traditionally run on the first Saturday in May. The Preakness is just two weeks later. Then there is three weeks between the second and third leg of the Triple Crown. This grueling series of three races in just five weeks also comes after a trying spring of running in very competitive races such as the Florida Derby, Louisiana Derby, Santa Anita Derby, Wood Memorial and others. And those are just the final preps that are usually proceeded by two, three or four races before that in most pre-Triple Crown campaigns.

Legendary trainer Charlie Whittingham once said thoroughbreds are like strawberries - they can go bad on you overnight. So you can imagine how special and talented a horse must be to survive the Triple Crown only to have it culminate with the 12 furlong Belmont.

A closer look at the contenders for Saturday's race illustrates this point. Only pre-race favorite Mine That Bird and the D. Wayne Lukas-trained Flying Private have started in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Mine That Bird will be making his fifth start this year after prepping for the Derby on the sub-major league oval of Sunland Park near El Paso, Texas. Iron horse Flying Private will be making his ninth start of the year and will be the only Belmont starter to have raced in every month of 2009.

Chocolate Candy, Dunkirk, Mr. Hot Stuff and Summer Bird started in the Derby but skipped the Preakness. Luv Gov started in the Preakness, but missed the Derby. Charitable Man and Miner's Escape make their first appearances in a Triple Crown race.

In the last ten runnings of the Belmont only Afleet Alex in 2005 and Point Given in 2001 have won the Belmont after starting in both the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. The last two winners, Da' Tara last year and the filly Rags to Riches in 2007 were both newcomers to the Triple Crown.