The colt is the morning line 2-1 favorite to dust off 12 rivals, but that’s not even half the story. Matz is still recovering from the shock of his life when he was summarily fired this summer by his chief owner-patrons, Roy and Gretchen Jackson, after a 10-year relationship that encompassed the incredible saga of Barbaro, who won the 2006 Kentucky Derby, broke down in the Preakness and then gripped the world with his gallant struggle for life, which he lost eight months later. Books have been written about the tragedy and the roles of Matz and the Jacksons.
Ordinarily, you would expect a shared experience of that magnitude to cement the bonds, but in this case it blew them to smithereens one day last July when Matz picked up the phone and learned he had been sacked.
“I was stunned,” Matz, 60, said yesterday. “I was given no reason. They just said it was a business decision, that they felt it was time for a change.”
With that, the Jacksons removed their 11 horses from Matz’ stable at Fair Hills, Md. Matz said he had no inkling of the impending separation. “Obviously, I must have done something or said something that they lost confidence in me, but if so, I have no idea what it was,” he said.
Matz said he had no hard feelings. “I really liked the Jacksons,” he said. “They handled the Barbaro tragedy with class and they gave me a Kentucky Derby winner, for which I will always be grateful.”
Acrimonious splits between owners, trainers and jockeys are fairly common in racing, the most notorious of recent times occurred when the owners of Seattle Slew gave their trainer Billy Turner the boot after winning the Triple Crown.
Still, the Matz firing was startling, not only because of his association with Barbaro but because Matz is an authentic American hero of rare courage. He was aboard a United Airlines jet when it crashed and burned on landing at Sioux City, Iowa, Airport on July 19, 1989, claiming 11 lives. Matz scooped up three children, all siblings, and led them to safety, then went back into the wreckage and plucked an 11-month old girl from the carnage, saving her life.
If his sudden dismissal rankled, Matz quickly found some mighty consolation. He took his recent maiden winner Union Rags to Saratoga in August and saw him annihilate the Grade 2 Saratoga Special by more than seven lengths.
Three weeks ago, he took him to Belmont for the Grade 1 Champagne, and despite a trip worse than an Atlantic crossing, Union Rags bolted in by more than five lengths. He is now 3-for-3.
If he wins the Juvenile — and he looks unbeatable — he will become the instant, automatic favorite for next year’s Kentucky Derby — a nice comeback for a man humiliated in July.
Union Rags’ owner, Phyllis Wyeth, has her own heroic story. The wife of celebrated artist James Wyeth, whose father is Andrew Wyeth, she worked in President Kennedy’s White House, handling his mail. But in 1962, an auto accident left her with a broken neck. For the past 10 years she has been confined to a wheelchair.
But that does not stop her from breeding and owning racehorses. She bred Union Rags, sold him as a yearling for $145,000, but then bought him back later for $390,000. “I started having dreams that he was going to do great things,” she said.
Her dream has paid off. Union Rags has already won $498,000 and if he wins Saturday, he’ll bank another $1.2 million. But for Michael Matz it might be more than the money. Something like vindication.