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Triple Crown 2012: Optimizer And Union Rags Will Run In The Belmont Stakes

On Saturday, June 9, I'll Have Another will attempt to win the ever-elusive Triple Crown, but there will be two horses with Florida ties attempting to stop that from happening. Michael Matz is the trainer for Union Rags, and he lives in Wellington, Florida. The jockey for Union Rags is Julien Leparoux of France. Union Rags is believed to be one of the potential spoilers of I'll Have Another's Triple Crown bid.

Jon Court, who was born in Gainesville, is the jockey for Optimizer. Optimizer is trained by D. Wayne Lukas.

It has been 34 years since a horse last won the Triple Crown.

For more on the Belmont Stakes and the race for the Triple Crown, stay with this StoryStream and check out SB Nation's horse racing blog And Down The Stretch They Come. There, you'll also find a A Beginner's Guide To Following Horse Racing and a glossary of horse racing terms.

Photographs by cstreet.us, thelastminute, turtlemom nancy , fesek, kthypryn, justinwright, sue_elias, pointnshoot, and scrapstothefuture used in background montage under Creative Commons. Thank you.