Thursday, June 18, 2009
After Mother Goose, What Next for Rachel Alexandra
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, June 18, 2009--Following four recent workouts--her last an absolute beauty--and after another scheduled for next week, Rachel Alexandra will leave her Churchill Downs base and ship to Belmont Park for the Grade 1 Mother Goose a week from Saturday.
Rachel and the game’s other “big mare,” Zenyatta, were the focus of a point-counterpoint match between a couple of turf writers who vote in the weekly NTRA poll that ranks the nation’s 10 top racehorses.
I, too, am an NTRA voter, although I didn’t this time since I was traveling last weekend and just forgot to vote.
But even if I had, I’ll be damned if I would have willingly accepted blame for how the poll turned out. One person, one vote, majority rule. As simple as that. It’s never any one person’s fault. Sometimes it’s actually the fault of the pollsters.
Like the Racing Hall of Fame and Eclipse Awards, the lack of defined criteria is the culprit. Is the top horse “the best horse,” a subjective measure of innate ability by the voter, the correct standard?
Or is it the horse that’s accomplished the most between the fences?
Here’s the dilemma: If Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra were to meet in a Grade 1 dirt race somewhere with an honest pace and a dry surface, and my life depended on picking the winner, I would, without hesitation, take Zenyatta, “the better horse.”
In a perfect world, each would have had comparable records, blending accomplishment with eye-pleasing athleticism and heart. But in the game of thoroughbred racing, perfect is an oxymoron.
Had I voted this week, I could not have ranked “the better filly” with a single Grade 1 victory in her only start of the year over the winner of five straight races and two Grade 1s, including America’s most coveted three-year-old filly event and an American classic over males.
For purposes of comparison, there is no comparison.
Of course, there’s still an entire half-season to sort everything out. Einstein could have secured the #1 spot and rendered the distaff argument moot had Julien Leparoux beat Alan Garcia to the hole at headstretch of the G1 Stephen Foster last weekend. But he didn’t.
There’s been little talk out of SoCal for the past month regarding Zenyatta’s future plans, an indication that her connections will stay on the same course that brought her up to the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic so successfully in 2008.
That would be the boring low road, but it‘s their mare.
Fans are beginning to hope that the Travers will become the race of the year by attracting the Preakness-winning filly into the fray with the two high-flying birds already committed to the race, Derby winner Mine That Bird and Belmont upstart Summer Bird.
At the moment, the bird horses are planning to get there via West Virginia and the Jersey Shore. For Rachel Alexandra, no plans have been announced beyond the June 27 Mother Goose.
But there’s another way for Rachel to top not only Zenyatta, but Einstein, Mine That Bird, and all the rest. Should she handle a handful of Mother Goose routinely and without reaching bottom, five weeks is perfect timing for the G1 Haskell on a surface whose natural bias suits her talents perfectly.
Belmont hero Summer Bird is committed to the Haskell. Certainly, no one can argue with his class or ability to get that job done at 9 furlongs; just conjure up visions of that wild-horse show finish at Oaklawn Park.
And now that the colt has more experience, confidence, the new blinkers that have sharpened his focus and Kent Desormeaux, he‘ll continue to be a factor in every remaining race this year. But it’s sometimes difficult for the Belmont winner to turn back successfully at Monmouth Park. Jess Jackson and Steve Asmussen know all about that.
Another talented colt recently committed to the Haskell is Big Drama, who finished first in six straight starts before his fifth-place Preakness run. Multiple stakes-winning Musket Man, highly competitive in the Derby and Preakness, is another probable starter in a deep group of Haskell hopefuls.
If, however, Rachel Alexandra makes her second start against Grade 1 males and wins, never mind the weekly NTRA poll. Just hand her connections the Horse of the Year Eclipse trophy right there in the Monmouth Park winner’s circle.
Written by John Pricci
