Belmont Stakes winner Union Rags will enter stud in 2013 at William S. Farish's Lane's End Farm, it was announced Thursday. A stud fee has yet to be announced.

A son of the late Lane's End stallion Dixie Union, Union Rags was retired last month after he was found to have a suspensory injury in his left front.

"We are thrilled that (owner) Phyllis Wyeth has chosen to stand Union Rags at Lane's End," Farish said in a news release. "He has all the makings of a top stallion. He was a brilliant racehorse with outstanding conformation and he has an exceptional pedigree."

Lane's End Farm, whose stallion roster also includes Smart Strike, Candy Ride, Quality Road, Curlin, Candy Ride, Mineshaft and Lemon Drop Kid, among others, is located just outside Versailles.

Trained by Michael Matz, Union Rags won the Belmont Stakes by a neck over eventual Haskell Invitational winner Paynter in what would go down as his final career start. That classic triumph gave the bay colt a measure of redemption after a troubled seventh-place finish in the Kentucky Derby.

Out of the winning Gone West mare Tempo, Union Rags was considered one of the leaders of his generation early on. He captured the Grade II Saratoga Special and Grade I Champagne Stakes as a 2-year-old in just his second and third career starts, respectively, before falling a head short of Hansen in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

In his 3-year-old debut, Union Rags scored an easy triumph in the Grade II Fountain of Youth Stakes but then was a disappointing third in the Grade I Florida Derby, his final prep before the first Saturday in May.

Union Rags retired with five wins in eight career starts and $1,798,800 in earnings.

Alicia Wincze Hughes: (859) 231-1676. Email: awincze@herald-leader.com. Blog: horseracing.bloginky.com.