2012 Belmont Stakes: Union Rags comes good at last

In the end, we did not have another US Triple Crown winner, or even another run from I'll Have Another, as the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was scratched from Saturday's Belmont Stakes little more than 24 hours before the race.

We did, however, have another thrilling contest for the final race in the series, resulting in the closest finish to a Belmont since 2007. Union Rags showed guts aplenty and no small amount of class to get up near the line to beat front-running Paynter by a neck.

In terms of form, however, this was an average winning effort for the Belmont, a race which has been marginally the weakest of the Triple Crown races in recent years, with Union Rags returning to his 124 best. Paynter improved to a figure of 123, while the unconsidered Atigun posted a clear personal best of 121.

No small amount of attention was given to the fact that Mike Smith, jockey of Paynter, allowed the winner to get up his inside late on, without which Union Rags would have had to have been switched and might well not have won. But due acknowledgment also needs to be made of Smith's fine judgment of pace before that.

Whereas Smith deserved strong criticism for the suicidal pace he set on Bodemeister in the Kentucky Derby, sectionals show he set a perfect tempo on the same horse in the Preakness (but still got overhauled by I'll Have Another) and that he managed to steady things in front on Paynter on Saturday, one reason why the overall time was unexceptional.

Finishing second in all three legs of the Triple Crown, as Smith, trainer Bob Baffert and owners Zayat Stables did, is an unenviable distinction in some respects, but connections have plenty to look forward to in the remainder of a year in which I'll Have Another will be absent. For a start, Bodemeister (rated 129) is now the best three-year-old still in action by some way.

Meanwhile, I'll Have Another retires with a short but powerful record, which saw him win five of his seven races and achieve a figure of 130, the equal of Camelot in Europe at this stage. Retirement seemed a bit extreme for what was described as "tendonitis" (usually rectified by rest), but at least racing was spared the spectacle of the horse breaking down in action or running a stinker.

The weekend saw a handful of other classy performances Stateside, with Acclamation returning in peak form (rated 125) to take the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap on turf at Betfair Hollywood Park and Redeemed posting a 124 figure in a 10-length winning romp in the Grade 2 Brooklyn Handicap at Belmont Park.

Redeemed could look some sort of a racing certainty for the Breeders' Cup Marathon come November, given that the race is usually won with a figure in the 110s, though connections may be tempted to shoot for the big one in the Classic instead.

Another horse which could be a contender come the Breeders' Cup (to be run at Santa Anita on November 2nd and 3rd) is Trinniberg. Last seen giving vain chase to Bodemeister in the Kentucky Derby (he kept tabs on that horse until about three furlongs out), Trinniberg returned to a more suitable distance of seven furlongs on the Belmont undercard and landed the Grade 2 Woody Stephens Stakes with authority, running to 122.

Trinniberg has a great deal of speed - too much as it happens for the smart and game Currency Swap on this occasion - and connections must be tempted to try him at six furlongs again before long.

It was also announced in the latest week that the US raiding party for Royal Ascot may include the useful two-year-old filly Allaboutcaroline, easy winner of her only race, at Keeneland in April, and already up to the kind of level usually required to win.

Her 108p rating has her second among US-trained juveniles, behind 114p-rated Bern Identity, a winner at Belmont earlier in the week.