Going into the $200,000 New Orleans Ladies Stakes at Fair Grounds on Saturday, the signals from Rachel Alexandra’s connections were clear: she was not 100% fit for her first start in more than six months.
The race was a tuneup for the 2009 Horse of the Year’s showdown with undefeated Zenyatta in the Apple Blossom Invitational Stakes (G1) on April 9 at Oaklawn Park.
But a day after Rachel Alexandra’s three-quarter-length loss to Zardana (Brz), who was sent to New Orleans as a trial balloon by Zenyatta’s trainer, John Shirreffs, majority owner Jess Jackson declared Rachel Alexandra out of the “Race for the Ages.”
Did the sting of losing to Zenyatta’s second-string stablemate cause Jackson to overreact?
Do he and trainer Steve Asmussen have reason to believe their four-year-old Medaglia d’Oro filly will not recapture her incredible form of 2009, when she won all eight of her starts, including the Kentucky Oaks (G1), BlackBerry Preakness Stakes (G1), Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), and Woodward Stakes (G1)?
Or as some others have suggested, has Team Rachel developed cold feet regarding their previously stated desire to face six-year-old Zenyatta three times this year?
Although she lost, Rachel did not run a bad race.
Breaking alertly from post two, Rachel was kept on hold by jockey Calvin Borel while pressing Fighter Wing through six furlongs in 1:12.86. At the top of the far turn, Borel took a look back and saw Zardana moving easily, advancing behind him.
Zardana rolled up outside Rachel as the field turned for home, but Borel hesitated to ask for the filly’s best run. After the race, Borel said he was instructed not to get into Rachel until the final sixteenth of a mile.
Those instructions were designed to prevent Rachel from doing too much in her comeback, but they hurt her chances to win on Saturday. A long-striding filly with a remarkable cruising speed, Rachel was put in the position of having to re-rally against a perfect-trip stalker who had a full head of steam.
Rachel was unable to outquicken Zardana, who was making her second start of the year and undoubtedly was cranked for the race, but she battled on gamely to the wire. The final time for 1 1/16 miles was 1:43.55, and it was 11½ lengths back to third-place finisher Unforgotten.
Although Zardana’s form since being imported to America in 2007 has topped out at the Grade 2 level, she did win her three previous races on dirt by an average margin of 13 lengths. Those victories were in her native Brazil, and until Saturday, Zardana has raced exclusively on turf and synthetic surfaces in California since she was shipped to the U.S.
It appears Zardana may be best on dirt. She was assigned a Beyer Speed Figure of 101, with Rachel Alexandra receiving a 100, the same figure she received in her first race of 2009. Although far from Rachel’s best, it was a good effort. And the figure roughly fits with Jackson’s prerace comments that she was only 80-85% ready.
Had Zardana not been in the race, a 12-length win and a Beyer Speed Figure of 100 would have looked like a perfectly acceptable prep race for the Apple Blossom.
Immediately after the defeat, Asmussen said, “No crystal ball could see that far ahead,” when asked about Rachel’s chances of facing Zenyatta at Oaklawn on April 9.
By Sunday, Team Rachel unequivocally declared her out of the showdown.
15-for-15
About 20 minutes after Rachel’s defeat, it was Zenyatta’s turn to make her 2010 debut in the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap (G1) at Santa Anita Park.
Carrying 127 pounds—conceding from 12 to 16 pounds to her opposition—the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner again made her case as the best horse in the world and one of the best mares of all time.
Trapped behind a wall of horses turning for home, jockey Mike Smith sent 17-hand Zenyatta diving to the rail in midstretch and then back outside of pacesetter Dance to My Tune.
Despite some nervous moments, Smith never used his whip. Zenyatta was galloping in hand, showing off her huge stride at the wire.
If Rachel and Zenyatta both reach the starting gate at Oaklawn, the Apple Blossom’s purse will increase from $500,000 to $5-million.
Shirreffs and Zenyatta’s owners Jerry and Ann Moss said their mare will be there rain or shine, Rachel or not.
There is still time for Asmussen and Jackson to change their minds.
But it might depend on what they see in that crystal ball.
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6 comments:
Unfortunately,what they see in the crystal ball is that they have a month, maybe two, to decide if they want to miss the breeding season with Rachel. Clearly, Rachel was not ready to compete at her near-best, was she a short horse? When was the last time Steve A ran a short horse? Was there another reason for her 5 month vacation, besides exhaustion? We may never know that. Have they been LISTENING to Rachel as she has been working out, subpar, screaming "I'M NOT READY TO RUN ! " Apparently not. They constantly say, they will do what's best for the horse, maybe they should START doing it.
I don't think he overreacted, Rachel is not ready,I hope she didn"t have to many hard race's last year.I am worried that trying to change her running style is not a good idea, I understand why they want to,hopefully if Rachel cannot come back as strong as she left Jackson will not keep trying to race her.
Rachel Alexandra lost her best trainer in the middle of 2009, and she is no longer the horse she was. The biggest losers here are the fans who are continuously disappointed by RA's quixotic connections who didn't think twice about running her into the ground last year in order to walk away with the Eclipse awards again.
I can scarcely blame RA for being uncooperative and difficult in her workouts. She's had it.
From what Asmussen's being saying during her works, Rachel's been breathing fire, so if this is true then Rachel is saying she wants to run. Asmussen has wanted to control her more, teach her to rate more, hence her looking uncomfortable and fighting Calvin during the race and Dominic during her works. Some horses don't accomodate changes in their running style, Rachel may be one of those. I say they should work her as usual this coming Monday without the figure eight and let her run the way she wants under minimal control. I have a hunch the old Rachel comes back. If it takes two more months to condition her, then take two months. Just stop trying to fix what isn't broken.
One interesting thing about the comments here (and what I've read elsewhere in the blogoshpere) is the wide array of opinions on the quality of Rachel's performance.
I thought it was a slightly dispappointing but acceptable effort given that she was not supposed to be at her best, and she encountered a surprisingly sharp foe in Zardana. To me this was only a stepping stone to move her towards a top effort four weeks from now.
Some think it was a really bad performance and a sign that something is wrong with Rachel.
The first commenter asked "When was the last time Steve A ran a short horse?" Obviously this person didn't watch Friesan Fire's season opener. That horse was so short that it was looking up at Verne Troyer. That horse was so short that ...
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