Play Me Some Ragtime in Breeders’ Cup Juvenile

 

It is obvious as we speak that the two leading 2-year-olds in the country are U.S.S. Valor, dominating winner of the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes, and Hughes, dominating winner of the Grade 1 American Pharoah Stakes. Just as last week’s column was the story of the former’s broodmare sire Tiz Wonderful and his owner, this column is the story of Hughes’ broodmare sire Union Rags and his owner and breeder Phyllis Wyeth, one of the most fascinating and extraordinary people I have ever met.

But getting  Union Rags to the races was quite an adventure and emotional roller coaster ride for Phyllis, who was from of one of the great families in racing, as the daughter of James and Alice du Pont Mills. Although she was born in New York City, she grew up outside Middleburg, Virginia on the Mills’ Burnt Mill Farm, which was adjacent to their Hickory Tree Farm. Among those who raced in Hickory Tree’s colors were champion 2-year-old Devil’s Bag and major stakes winners Gone West and Believe it, as well English 1,000 Guineas winner Glad Rags. Phyllis loved horses as a child and said she could ride before she could walk, and began hotwalking her father’s polo ponies as a young girl.

After graduating from the Ethel Walker School, Phyllis majored in Political Science at Finch College and later attended the Columbia School of Social Work. At age 20, she worked on then-senator John F. Kennedy’s Presidential campaign and later in the White House with President Kennedy’s special assistant. But her passion was always horses. She loved riding in point-to-point races and was an accomplished carriage driver, which enabled her to combine her equestrian skills and care for the horses with vehicle mechanics and maintenance.

In 1962, however, Phyllis’ world changed forever when she was seriously injured in a car accident, suffering a broken neck, which left her unable to walk. For the rest of her life she moved about, first with crutches, and then in a motorized scooter. She continued serving on a number committees, including “The National Committee for Arts for the Handicapped.”

Throughout her life she supported many philanthropic causes and continued fighting for the rights of the handicapped and disabled, as well as helping the disadvantaged. But her only hands-on involvement with horses were the Thoroughbreds she bred.

In 1968, she married Jamie Wyeth of the famous Wyeth Family of the Brandywine Valley of Delaware, site of one of the biggest battles of the Revolutionary War. Jamie was a famous painter, known for his portraits of John F. Kennedy and Andy Warhol. Before they were married, Phyllis had done some modeling for him. Jamie found her to be a strong, determined woman, and because of her elusive personality, which you will read about later, he was always discovering something new about her.

The couple lived on their Point Lookout Farm in Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania, located on the Pennsylvania-Delaware border, with its beautiful views of the Brandywine Valley. Phyllis’ great-grandfather purchased the farm in 1903, and it served as inspiration for many of Jamie’s paintings. It was at Point Lookout Farm that Phyllis kept her eight mares and raised the foals.

Phyllis never lost her love of horses and began breeding her own and racing under the name Chadds Ford Stable, while always dreaming of having that special racehorse. Advising her was her close friend Russell Jones, owner, along with his brother Richard, of Walnut Green, one of the biggest bloodstock agencies in the country.

Phyllis’ favorite mare was Tempo, a daughter of Gone West, out of the multiple stakes-winning Nijinsky mare Terpsicherist, who she got from her mother, which made her all the more special, as she carried on the family’s bloodlines. But Tempo struggled heavily with conceiving and sustaining pregnancies.

In 2007, Tempo gave birth to her seventh foal, a colt by During, but hemorrhaged after giving birth. It was feared she wouldn’t survive. She lay in her stall for some 45 minutes before she finally got up. Although she survived, Phyllis was told there was very little chance she would ever breed again. Tempo was given the year off to fully recover, and looked to be back in good health and ready to be bred again in 2008.

On the recommendation of Russell Jones, with whom she had ridden in point-to-point races for years, Phyllis bred Tempo to Dixie Union, and on March 3, 2009, she produced a big strong gorgeous colt with a beautiful blaze, a right front white ankle, and two white ankles behind. Phyllis immediately fell in love with the foal, who she called her “dream come true.” Feeling he’d get better care in Kentucky, she sent him to Royal Oak Farm, owned by Russell Jones’ niece Braxton Lynch and her husband Damien. According to Jones, before sending the colt back to Point Lookout, Damien took a photo of him and sent it to Phyllis, along with an email saying, “Now you’ve got your Derby winner.”

The colt was so laid back and easy-going that even when he was a yearling, Phyllis said you could sit on him while he was lying down in his stall. Everything he did indicated he could be that special horse Phyllis was hoping for, especially considering he was a fourth-generation descendant of her family’s breeding program.

What happened next, however, was unexpected and a crushing blow to Phyllis. She was devastated when her accountant told her she had to sell the Dixie Union colt in order to show a profit and run the farm as a business. This was the horse she had dreamed about her whole life and now she was forced to give him up. She admitted she never had such affection for a horse.

It was hard for her to bear, but she wound up selling the colt at the 2010 Fasig-Tipton yearling sale at Saratoga for $145,000 to IEAH Stable, who had won the 2008 Kentucky Derby and Preakness with Big Brown. But she immediately began having seller’s remorse and the thought of losing the horse brought her to tears. This was Point Lookout’s and her family’s legacy, and he was gone.

Phyllis kept having a recurring dream that she was meant to have this horse and told Jones to see if he could buy him back. But the colt wasn’t for sale. Then one day about six months later, Jones called her and said the colt was in the Fasig-Tipton Florida 2-year-old sale at Palm Meadows. IEAH was having some financial issues of their own and had been pinhooking horses in order to create as much cash flow as possible.

They had sent the Dixie Union colt to Eddie Woods in Ocala to prepare for the sale. “He was such a big, beautiful mover,” Woods recalled. “He had the potential to be anything. And he was just the perfect gentleman to train.”

When Phyllis heard from Jones about her colt being in the sale, she was simple and to the point: “Get him!”

Even though Jones said she was going to have to pay a lot more than she sold him for, she was determined to buy him back. Phyllis told Jones to go to $390,000, and if she had to she would borrow the money from the bank. When the colt stepped into the ring, the auctioneer took one look at him and said, “Oh, boy, isn’t he beautiful?”

The bidding rose steadily in $10,000 increments before reaching Phyllis’ and Jones’ limit. He bid $390,000 and prayed for silence. After a few agonizing seconds, down came the hammer. The auctioneer said, “Thank you and good luck,” and Phyllis had her horse back.

“It was as if it was supposed to happen,” Jones said. “She picked that number 390 out of thin air and that’s what he sold for. You have to believe he was meant to come home.”

Being by Dixie Union out of Tempo, Phyliis named the colt Union Rags and turned him over to Michael Matz, who had won the 2006 Kentucky Derby with the ill-fated Barbaro. But she was a bit apprehensive when he entered the colt in a five-furlong maiden race at Delaware Park on July 11, 2011. Matz, who has never had a reputation for sending out precocious 2-year-olds, realized the colt needed experience and had been training well, so he decided to run him at a shorter distance than he normally would have.

When Union Rags came from six lengths back at the quarter pole to win by almost two lengths at odds of 7-1, Phyllis knew she had something special. She was even more convinced in his second start when he romped by 7 1/4 lengths in the Grade 2 Saratoga Special over a deep sloppy track after battling head and head for the lead early. That set him up for the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at Belmont Park, which he again won easily by 5 1/4 lengths in a sharp 1:35 2/5 for the mile. He was now one step away from the 2-year-old championship, and was only going to get better the farther he ran.

Unfortunately, Union Rags was caught very wide the whole way in the 2011 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Churchiil Downs and was beaten a head by Hansen, who had won his first two starts by 12 1/4 and 13 1/4 lengths. That head defeat cost Union Rags the Eclipse Award, which went to Hansen.

To Matz’ surprise and indignation, Hansen not only won the Eclipse Award, but won in a landslide. “I didn’t mind losing the Eclipse Award, but I didn’t think Hansen should have gotten four times as many votes,” he said. “It was one of those instances where you look at something and say, ‘How can I be so wrong?'”

Union Rags returned 3 1/2 months later for his 3-year-old debut in the 1 1/16-mile Fountain of Youth Stakes on February 26, 2012. The colt’s regular rider Javier Castellano had decided to stay with Todd Pletcher’s undefeated Algorithms, who had won the Holy Bull Stalkes by five lengths in only his third career start and you didn’t take off undefeated Todd Pletcher colts. So Matz gave the mount on Union Rags to Julien Leparoux. As it turned out, Algorithms suffered an injury and never ran again. Union Rags coasted to an easy four-length victory, establishing himself as the early Kentucky Derby favorite. Was Damien Lynch’s words about to come true?

But Phyllis’ bubble burst a bit in the Florida Derby when Union Rags’ late run fell short by 1 1/4 lengths and he wound up finishing third as the overwhleming 2-5 favorite. Then came the cruelest blow of all in the Kentucky Derby when Union Rags, the 5-1 second choice behind the brilliant Arkansas Derby winner Bodemeister, was bumped soundly and squeezed back at the start, dropping back to 18th. This was a colt who was used to being fairly close to the pace and now had a mass of horses in front of him. He was unable to find a clear path and remained at the back of the pack. On the far turn he attempted to make a run but had to take up sharply, and by the time he found room it was way too late. He closed from 16th at the quarter pole to finish seventh.

Phyllis was devastated and tried to come to terms with seeing her “baby” never even given a chance. She retreated to their home in Maine with Jamie to unwind from the bitter disappointment of the Derby.

“She seemed OK right after the race,” Matz said, “but as the week went on it started to sink in that it’s finished; that’s it, the Derby is gone.”

Russell Jones felt badly for his friend. “She took it tough and rightly so,” he said. “With all the attention she was getting before the Derby, it put her on a level she wasn’t used to being on. She really doesn’t like all the attention. After the race she was whipped. This colt has always been so special to her and to have the rug pulled out from under her was very tough.”

The Derby wasn’t the way the fairy tale was supposed to end. The story of Phyllis Wyeth and Union Rags had played out like some great saga and seemed destined to end the way all fairy tales do. But fairy tales are often rudely interrupted by reality.

Union Rags was given some time to point for the Belmont Stakes. He was sent to Matz’ barn at Fair Hill in Maryland and seemed to flourish, as most horses do at Fair Hill, with its forests and gentle rolling hills and winding horse paths where horses frolic in sand pens and graze contentedly in paddocks.

One morning, Matz began applying ointment on the cuts Union Rags had suffered on his pastern at Churchill Downs. He was hoping to salvage one of the Triple Crown events and felt by skipping the Preakness and pointing for the Belmont it would give the colt time to recover from his ordeal in the Derby. 

“Everything couldn’t have gone any better in Kentucky except for the last two minutes,” Matz said. “And that was the only part we couldn’t control. I didn’t know what to say to Phyllis, she was so disappointed. You can’t criticize the horse if he isn’t given a chance to run.”

It was pretty obvious at that point that Matz was seriously contemplating switching jockeys. Leparoux wasn’t working out, and after the defeats at Gulfstream and Churchill it was time to change. Matz would eventually choose John Velazquez, who had ridden another “Rags” (Rags to Riches) to victory in the 2007 Belmont Stakes.

On the Sunday before the Belmont, Velazquez went down to Fair Hill to work Union Rags, who drilled five furlongs in a brisk :59 flat

“Michael just said he wanted me to get a feel for the horse,” Velazquez said. “As soon as I got on him, the first words out of my mouth were, ‘Man, he’s pretty strong.’ He did everything so easily; I was very impressed with him. Hopefully, I can give him the trip he deserves. He’s just a big, strong, gorgeous horse, and I think people are going to be surprised to see him return to the Union Rags they knew.”

The big news Belmont week came the day before the race when it was announced that Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner I’ll Have Another had sustainted an injury and was out of the Belmont. Bodemeister, second in the Derby and Preakness, also was skipping the Belmont. The race was now wide-open and Dullahan, third in the Derby, was made the slight 5-2 favorite over Union Rags, also at 5-2. Bob Baffert’s Paynter, as expected, went to the lead under Mike Smith, and after a lively opening quarter in :23 3/5, he slowed the pace down, getting the half in :49 1/5 and three-quarters in 1:14 3/5.

Velazquez had Union Rags down on the inside in fifth after breaking from post 3 and was just biding his time, waiting for room. The longer the race went the more uneasy Matz and Phyllis became, seeing the same scenario as the Florida Derby and Kentucky Derby unfolding.

“I was having flashbacks of the last two races and was starting to get nervous,” Matz said.

Paynter continued to lead, while under a comfortable hold by Smith and looked to be in control of the race, slowing down the fractions with a 1:38 4/5 mile. Passing the three-eighths pole, Union Rags was making steady progress without having to break stride at all.

Turning for home, Smith could sense the danger from a rallying Atigun on his outside and went to a left-handed whip. Paynter eased slightly off the rail, just enough to allow Union Rags a path, as narrow as it was. Velazquez jumped at the opportunity and came through the tight spot. Paynter had repulsed the challenge from Atigun and now had to turn his attention to Union Rags, who was creeping up on his inside. Paynter dug in again, but Union Rags kept coming and was able to just get up by a neck.

‘I saw the hole and I waited for it to open up,” Velazquez said. “I got lucky. The horse did it all.”

Union Rags had come through for Phyllis, turning the fairy tale into reality.

As Phyllis, seemingly overwhelmed by the experience, was wheeled into the winner’s circle,one of those cheering her on was her niece Sophie Derrickson.

“I’m so happy for Phyllis,” she said. “She really needed this. After the Derby she seemed good until she got home. That’s when she crashed and left for Maine to unwind. Phyllis is like my mother; we’ve done everything together. I’m the only grandschild in the family.”

The late Rick Porter of Fox Hill Farm and Phyllis’ close friend, said. “Phyllis is the most remarkable person I have ever met. Her life was turned upside down and she’s been prevented from doing the things she was always able to do, mainly ride and jump horses. As a person, she is in a class alone from anyone I have ever met. Every day is full of roadblocks that most of us can’t even fathom. Yet, she always gets to where she wants to go, no matter how hard it is for her. She needs to have action and is always planning something. She never looks at a situation and feels defeated. She meets the challenge every time.”

After the race, Phyllis passed on the post-race interview, much to the dismay of the media, and was taken to the director’s room. But she wasn’t interested in celebrations and left after a few minutes. All she wanted to do was go to the barn to see her hero and say something to assistant trainer Peter Brette.

“I want to see Peter and the boys,” she said outside the director’s room, holding a half-smoked cigar. “It got so hot in that room I was ready to pass out. I just want to have a little puff of my cigar.”

Back at the barn, Union Rags had just been out grazing for a short while and Brette asked Phyllis if she wanted to see him outside his stall.

“No, if you tell me he’s alright, that’s fine with me,” she said. “You call me in two days and tell me if there’s any heat.” Then she added, “I’m sorry I didn’t mention you on TV; everything was so out of control.”

But Brette had the colt brought out anyway, and Phyllis wheeled herself over to him and gave him a pat on the forehead.

And so, the emotional and adventure-filled journey of Phyllis Wyeth and Union Rags was able to have a happy ending after all. The horse was put on a van that night and returned home to Fair Hill.

“Tomorrow he’ll be turned out in a nice paddock,” said Matz, “and can stay out as long as he wants to.”

After the Belmont, Union Rags was training for the July 29 Haskell Invitational when a small lesion in the middle of the suspensory of his left front leg was detected that would keep him out for the remainder of the year. On July 20, after giving it a good deal of thought, Phyllis made the decision to retire Union Rags.

“I spoke to Phyllis about two hours ago,” Russell Jones said at the time. “She discussed it with Jamie and it was all about the risk factor. This was a time to make the tough decision. The horse is very much in the limelight as far as breeders go at this moment, and they felt like it would be a challenge and a risk to try to be back in this position next year.”

So Union Rags was retired to Lane’s End Farm in Midway, Kentucky. Although not in the limelight Phyllis and Russell Jones understandably thought he’d be, he still has sired six Grade 1 winners, the last being Power Squeeze, winner of the 2024 Alabama and five other stakes.

On January 14, 2019, Phyllis Wyeth died peacefully at her home on Point Lookout Farm at the age of 78. The cause of death was never disclosed.

“This was a big loss for me personally, a big loss for the community and a big loss for the horse world,” Russell Jones told The Horse of Delaware Valley. “Her shoes won’t be easily filled. She was a very strong personality, and she had a great connection to her horses. After Union Rags won the Belmont, Phyllis drove right into the winner’s circle and right up to Union Rags’ head and reached out a hand to pat his nose. I’ve seen Union Rags put his head right into the basket that she had on the front of her scooter. She had a rapport with her horses that was very unusual.”

In 2020, Jamie Wyeth donated Point Lookout Farm to the Thoroughbred Retirement Fund to be used as a permanent home for retired Thoroughbreds in honor of Phyllis and Union Rags, renaming it Pastures of Point Lookout. Jamie hired trainer Graham Motion and his wife Anita to manage the facility and establish strict guidelines for the long-term veterinary and daily care of the horses, with Anita named executive director.

“It has been a remarkable experience to participate in the creation of Pastures of Point Lookout and to enable Mr. Wyeth to realize his dream for a legacy in his wife’s honor,” Anita said. “Watching the horses step off the van and soak in the beauty of their new home was genuinely like experiencing a dream come true.”

Jamie added, “I view Pastures of Point Lookout as a lasting reminder of the contributions to the world of horse racing by Phyllis and her champion, Union Rags.”

Those contributions may not be over. In 2016, Union Rags had been bred to the Point Given mare Litigating, a winner of only one of her nine career starts. The resulting foal, named K P Dreamin, finished third in the 2019 Grade 1 Chandalier Stakes and Starlet Stakes at 2 and retired the following May after finishing sixth in the Honeymoon Stakes on grass. Bred to Into Mischief, K P Dreamin produced a colt in 2024 later to be named Hughes, who was purchased by SF Racing, Starlight Racing, and Madaket Stable for $675,000 at the 2025 Keeneland September yearling sale, and turned over to trainer Bob Baffert.

In four starts, Hughes has won all four, with his smallest margin of victory being 4 3/4 lengths in the Del Mar Futurity, his first of two Grade 1 victories.

But Union Rags is not the only horse who could carry on the family legacy in this year’s Breeders’ Cup, His dam Tempo, the mare who Phyllis got from her mother and who almost died after giving birth, is actually in the family of another Breeders’ Cup contender. Her first foal in 1999 was a Rahy filly named Tempo West, who won three of her 11 starts after selling for $25,000 at the 2001 OBS 2-year-old sale. In 2009, Tempo West produced a War Front colt named Declaration of War, who won the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York, and was beaten two noses in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Declaration of War is the broodmare sire of this year’s Pennsylvania Derby winner and Breeders’ Cup Classic hopeful The Puma.

But the day before the Classic, on October 30, all eyes will be on Hughes, as the undefeated and untested colt will attempt to nail down the 2-year-old championship that his grandsire was denied by a mere head 15 years earlier. And who knows, maybe next year he will get that Kentucky Derby victory that had been envisioned for Union Rags and then perhaps even join him on the list of Belmont Stakes winners. Phyllis Wyeth would certainly light up a cigar to celebrate that.

 

Photos courtesy of Lane’s End Farm, Adam Coglianese, and New York Daily News/Bryan Smith.

Racing historian, author, and award-winning retired journalist for the Daily Racing Form and The Blood-Horse, Steve Haskin was inducted into the National Museum of Racing Hall of Fame’s Media Roll of Honor in 2016. Known for his racing knowledge and insightful prose, he has been an exclusive contributor to Secretariat.com since 2020.