Post Position 7

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photo by Horsephotos/NTRA

Career Earnings: $692,528

• Won the Grade 1, nine-furlong Kentucky Oaks in the mud on May 4 in 1:49.99.

• She will be the 22nd filly to compete in the “Test of the Champion.” Only two fillies – Ruthless in the inaugural Belmont Stakes in 1867 at Jerome Park and Tanya in 1905, the year Belmont Park opened – have ever won the Belmont Stakes.

• In the last 11 years, two fillies have raced in the Belmont Stakes. My Flag finished third in 1996 and Silverbulletday – the last to attempt the feat – finished seventh in 1999.

• Rags to Riches has got a monstrous pedigree. Her sire, A.P. Indy, won the Belmont Stakes in 1992 and was later named Horse of the Year that season. Her dam, Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister, foaled last year’s Belmont Stakes champion, Jazil.

• Sunday, she worked five furlongs in 1:03.84 on the fast main track at Belmont Park, ranking 17 of 19 at the distance.

• Had Rags to Riches skipped the Belmont Stakes, she would have started as a heavy favorite in Belmont’s 51st running of the Grade 1, $250,000 Mother Goose versus fillies here on June 30th.

TRAINER - Todd Pletcher 

Received Eclipse Award as Top Trainer in 2004, 2005 and 2006.

Set single-year earnings mark for a trainer with $26,820,243 in 2006.

Set records for most stakes wins and most graded stakes wins in a year in 2006. His 100 stakes victories and 57 graded stakes wins broke marks set by his former boss, D. Wayne Lukas.

Leading trainer at both the 2004 and 2003 Saratoga meetings with a record 35 victories. (In 2003, Pletcher crushed the previous records: Sylvester Veitch won 19 races in 1954 and H. Allen Jerkens won 19 races in 1972, both in 24-day meetings. Bill Mott won 22 races in a 36-day meet in 2001.)

Set the record for most victories at a Belmont Spring meeting when he won 40 races at the 2003 meeting. He was also the leading trainer at the 2002 Belmont Spring meeting with 30 wins and at the 1999 Belmont Park Spring meeting with 18 wins.

Left Bank won the 7-furlong Tom Fool Handicap (Gr. 3) in 1:20 on July 4, 2002, to set the Belmont Park track record. (The previous track record was set by You and I at 1:20 1/5 on Jan. 11, 1994.) Left Bank later equaled the Saratoga track record for 1 1/8 miles when he won the Whitney Handicap (Gr. 1) in 1:47 on Aug. 3, 2002. (The 1 1/8- mile track and stakes record was set by Tri Jet on Aug. 3, 1974.)

Presented with the Fourstardave Award for Outstanding Achievement in Saratoga in 1998 and 2003 by the New York Turf Writers Association.

Presented with the Woody Stephens Award as Outstanding Trainer in 1998, 2002 and 2005 by the New York Turf Writers Association. He shared the award with Robert Frankel in 2002 and John Kimmel in 1998.

Jersey Girl won seven straight races in 1998 before she was sidelined with an injury. The last six of the seven wins were in stakes races, including three Grade 1 races: the Acorn, the Mother Goose and the Test. Won his first New York stakes race with Jersey Girl in the 1997 Astoria.

Won five races on a single card at Saratoga August 30, 2004.

JOCKEY - John Velazquez

Received Eclipse Award as Top Jockey in2004 and 2005.

Won Bill Shoemaker Award for top performance by a jockey at the Breeders' Cup in 2004. He won the Distaff with Ashado and the Sprint with Speightstown.

Established record marks for victories at two consecutive Saratoga meetings: won 61 races in 2003; then won 65 races in 2004. (The previous record was 55 set by Jerry Bailey in 2001.)

Won Career Race No. 3,000 on July 29, 2004 when he rode Runingforpresident to victory in the second race at Saratoga. That day, more than 35,000 fans received a John Velazquez Bobble-Head Doll.

Has finished among the top 10 riders in New York for the past 12 years: 1991 through 2004, inclusive.

Presented with the Eddie Arcaro Award as Outstanding Jockey by the New York Turf Writers Association in 2002, 2003 and 2005. He shared the honor with Jerry Bailey in 2001.

Presented with the Fourstardave Award by the New York Turf Writers Association in 2003.

Won a track-record six races at Saratoga on Sept. 3, 2001. His sixth victory was with Starine in the Diana Handicap.

Won four races on Nov. 24, 2001, including the Cigar Mile (Left Bank), Remsen (Saarland) and the Demoiselle (Smok'n Frolic).

Won five races on Aug. 5, 2001 at Saratoga.

Won his first Grade 1 stakes races in 1995: Turk Passer in the Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont Park and Perfect Arc in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.

OWNERS - Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith

Michael Tabor was the principal shareholder in the Arthur Prince chain of betting shops in the United Kingdom until selling the business in 1996 for $50 million. In 1972, he purchased his first Thoroughbred and 23 years later his Thunder Gulch won the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes. He has campaigned many runners, such as Galileo and Giant's Causeway, in partnership with Susan Magnier, wife of Coolmore Stud owner John Magnier and daughter of renowned Irish trainer Vincent O'Brien.

Derrick Smith first gained prominence as a co-owner with Michael Tabor in such horses as Lion Heart, Pomeroy, Sense of Style and third-place 2003 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Chapel Royal. Now is a partner in many top horses trained by Aidan O'Brien in Ireland, such as George Washington and Alexandrova, as well as Irish Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Hurricane Run. U.S. runners include Kentucky Cup Classic winner Ball Four and stakes-placed 2-year-old filly Her Majesty, both owned with Tabor, and Delaware Oaks winner Adieu, owned with Tabor and Susan Magnier. Celebrated the first group 1 victory in his own colors when Simply Perfect won the Fillies' Mile at Ascot in September of 2006.