Lady First

They all wondered: How good can she be? On cold spring mornings in Kentucky , retired Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero exercised a colt alongside the filly Rags to Riches and watched her effortless athleticism, a sweet running action possessed by only the rarest of racehorses. "Everything looks so easy for her," Cordero recalls thinking. "She goes fast, she goes slow, she's so handy. She can do something special."

On a rainy afternoon one day before the running of the May�5 Kentucky Derby, rival trainer Nick Zito stood alone in the Churchill Downs paddock, gazing up at a giant television screen as Rags to Riches crushed 13 foes to win the Kentucky Oaks, a prestigious race for 3-year-old fillies. "That's some nice filly," said Zito to a writer.

"Maybe she should be running tomorrow," said the writer, and Zito arched his eyebrows. That, of course, was pure fantasy. She had run her race for the weekend.

Four days before last Saturday's Belmont Stakes , trainer Todd Pletcher decided to enter Rags to Riches in the 1 1?2-mile final leg of the Triple Crown, challenging six colts, including the precocious Curlin, who had won the Preakness after finishing second to Street Sense in the Derby. Garrett Gomez had been Rags to Riches' rider in four consecutive victories from January to the Oaks, but as Pletcher waffled about the Belmont , Gomez agreed to replace Mario Pino on Hard Spun. Once Pletcher committed to Saturday's race Gomez pleaded to get back on Rags to Riches, but Hard Spun's connections would not release him. "She is such a magnificent filly," Gomez said after the Belmont . "I just knew we would see a great display from her."

No, not great--one for the ages. On a gray late afternoon Rags to Riches became the Belmont 's first filly champion in 102 years with a performance that was equal parts brilliance and courage. Running far wide for much of her circuit after stumbling out of the gate, she took the lead in the stretch under jockey John Velazquez and held off Curlin by a short head in a withering drive to the wire. Twice, Rags to Riches seemed poised to finish off Curlin and twice Curlin rallied. Together they ran the last two furlongs in 23.83�seconds, the fastest final quarter in a Belmont since 1934.

For the third consecutive year the Belmont was run with no Triple Crown at stake; the race was further diminished when the Street Sense camp opted to pass. Something dramatic was desperately needed, and Rags to Riches provided it.

A daughter of 1992 Belmont winner A.P.�Indy, Rags to Riches is a beautiful, nearly red chestnut with a broad white blaze who was purchased by Englishmen Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith for $1.9�million at Keeneland in September�2005. Maturing slowly, she raced just once as a 2-year-old but won three straight against her own gender this spring, including a dominant victory in the Santa Anita Oaks on March�11. "At that point, we came close to running her in the Santa Anita Derby [against colts]," says Pletcher , who got his first win in a Triple Crown race after 28 losses. Instead he took the more conservative route: an eight-week layoff before her victory in the Kentucky Oaks.

Pletcher treated his filly like an heirloom. "She might be good enough to win the Kentucky Derby," he said while watching Rags to Riches gallop in the predawn fog at Keeneland in April. "But right now I don't want to mess her up trying to do that because I like her too much."

Rags to Riches ran in the Belmont only after Street Sense was held out of the race, which left a softer field. For racing fans it was a reminder that equine stars seldom linger in the spotlight before they are hustled off to the breeding shed. There was a hole in the race and a hole in the sport. Rags to Riches filled it.