Barbaro's owners, trainer go separate ways

LOUISVILLE, Ky. - Roy Jackson, co-owner of the great and ill-fated racehorse Barbaro with his wife, Gretchen, said their connection with Barbaro's trainer, Michael Matz, will never fade.

"We'll be tied until we're off this earth," Jackson said Thursday. "It still keeps going on."

It just won't continue with more horses. This summer, the Jacksons told Matz they were moving the horses they had with him to another trainer.

"I don't know what to say," Matz said Thursday outside his barn at Churchill Downs as he prepares two undefeated 2-year-olds for the Breeders' Cup, with Somali Lemonade racing Friday in the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Union Rags racing Saturday in the Juvenile. "They couldn't have been nicer to me. I don't know what happened. I know I got four 2-year-olds [from the Jacksons] three weeks before. Then the next call I got I was fired."

The Jacksons and Matz never came close to re-creating the success Barbaro had with other horses, including two full brothers to the 2006 Kentucky Derby winner, who broke down at the Preakness two weeks later and was euthanized the following year.

Owners and trainers part ways every day of the week. Of the five top morning-line favorites for Saturday's Breeders' Cup Classic, four have had trainer changes. The noteworthy aspect here obviously is that the Jackson-Matz partnership extended beyond the track, as Barbaro spent eight months at the New Bolton Center in Chester County recovering from a catastrophic breakdown before succumbing to laminitis.

This time the Jacksons told Matz they were making a business decision.

"It was time to make a change," Jackson said in a telephone interview. "And it was a difficult thing under the circumstances. . . . We sat down, talked to him. I hope we're on good terms. No hard feelings on our part on anything. We had nothing but good memories. It was just time to go in a little different direction."

"It's a shame," Matz said. "It hurt a lot. But, you know, that's life. My wife was great. She said, 'Look, just feel happy you got a Kentucky Derby winner,' which is true. And I have some horses now. . . . I wish them all the best of luck in the world. That's all I can do. They gave me a Kentucky Derby winner and I'm grateful for that."

Matz has benefited from owners moving horses in his direction.

Probably the second-greatest victory of his training career to date came when he won the 2006 Breeders' Cup Distaff with Round Pond after owner Rick Porter moved the horse from the barn of the trainer who won the 2004 Kentucky Derby with Smarty Jones, John Servis. (Porter now has one of the Breeders' Cup Classic favorites, Havre de Grace. That filly moved from the barn of Tony Dutrow to Larry Jones earlier this year.)

If the Matz-trained Union Rags, owned by Phyllis Wyeth of Chadds Ford, wins Saturday's Breeders' Cup Juvenile, Matz will have the obvious early 2012 Kentucky Derby favorite. Union Rags, undefeated in three starts, is the 2-1 morning-line favorite for Saturday's race after an eye-opening 51/4-length victory in the Champagne Stakes on Oct. 8 at Belmont Park. The colt has won his three starts over a collective 191/2 furlongs by a combined 141/4 lengths.

Of his expectations for this one, Matz tried to low-key it: "They're 2-year-olds. You don't know what to expect."

But Matz said Union Rags was an earlier developer than Barbaro, who grew up fast just before the Derby, the trainer said.

"He's very mature for his age," Matz said of Union Rags, owned by the wife of painter Jamie Wyeth and daughter-in-law of the late Andrew Wyeth. "He has a lot of plain raw ability and a lot of common sense to him. . . . I would say he's a pretty unbelievable specimen at this point."

Of his confidence level for Saturday's race, Matz said: "Let's put it this way - I wouldn't want to trade hands with anybody. You've got to have confidence in him. He hasn't done anything wrong."

Union Rags isn't the trainer's only live shot at a Breeders' Cup winner this year. Somali Lemonade, undefeated in two starts this fall, and owned by Matz's sister-in-law Caroline Forgason, is the 3-1 second morning-line choice in Friday's Juvenile Fillies Turf. Matz also has several other 2-year-olds in his barn who have impressed him.

"So one door closes, another door opens," Matz said.