So long, Rags to Riches

It's too bad that Rags to Riches will never run again, because she was one of the best 3-year-old fillies I've ever seen. A recurrence of a leg injury led to Monday's announcement that she was being retired to become a broodmare at Ashford Stud in Kentucky. She was only the third filly, and the first in 102 years, to win the Belmont Stakes, and to do it she had to outlast the eventual Horse of the Year, Curlin, in as exciting a stretch battle as you could imagine. Unfortunately, after that exhausting duel, she had little left, racing only once.

"It's a sad day for racing and all of her fans," her trainer, Todd Pletcher, said from the Palm Beach Downs training center in Florida. "She will go down in the history books as one of the greatest fillies ever to run."

Rags to Riches' Belmont was the ultimate exclamation point to a riveting Triple Crown that won't be matched for many years. Despite stumbling badly coming out of the gate and being wide most of the way, she kept coming. The chestnut amazon with the white face showed a marathoner's stamina and a warrior's heart as she refused to let the Preakness winner go by. In the final quarter-mile they went head to head in under 24 seconds, and never did the 1 1/2-mile "Test of the Champion" demand more. The stress might have contributed to the hairline fracture that Rags to Riches suffered three months later while finishing second to Lear's Princess in the Gazelle Handicap at Belmont Park.

"She has reinjured her right front pastern," Pletcher said Monday, "and because of the timing, the decision was made to retire her as opposed to trying to bring her back in the fall."

Rags to Riches ran only seven times, winning five, including the Kentucky Oaks, the fillies' Derby, and she might have given Street Sense a serious challenge the next day if she'd been pointed to the Derby instead. Now she joins him in retirement, and of the stars of the 2007 classics, only Curlin is still running. Sad to say, what would have been far more surprising is if she had rebounded from her injury and resumed her domination. These magnificent creatures aren't built to last. So again, the sad lesson: Enjoy the great horses while they're around, because they're rarely there for long.