Filly could elevate '09 Triple Crown

The Internet has been abuzz with mostly negative comments about Jess Jackson's purchase of Rachel Alexandra and the announcement that she is under consideration for the Preakness Stakes (G1).

Admittedly, it did not take a lot of imagination to buy the 20-length winner of the Kentucky Oaks (G1), after the race. It took a lot of money.

And no one liked to see trainer like Hal Wiggins lose the star filly he trained for the first ten races of her career. So the backlash was predictable, perhaps warranted on some level.

But Rachel Alexandra's sale could be very good for a sport struggling to regain its place in the national conscience.

Clashes between great competitors are celebrated in all sports. In racing they are too few and far between.

With the exception of the Triple Crown, the Breeders' Cup, and a handful of other races, many of our best horses spend the year avoiding each other while preserving their value upon retirement, which comes too soon for too many.

Rachel Alexandra's breeder and previous owner Dolphus Morrison was going to point her to the Acorn Stakes (G1), a one-turn mile for three-year-old fillies on the Belmont Stakes (G1) undercard. The Acorn is a nice race and a conservative, logical spot, but it likely would have featured no more drama than the marvelous filly's morning workouts. Rachel Alexandra would have been 1-to-9 to crush the handful of rivals who showed up.

Not only was Morrison avoiding a matchup with colts under the admittedly less-than-ideal conditions the Triple Crown presents, he said he was looking out for the breeding value of those future stallions he did not want to chance trouncing!

"The Triple Crown races are for future stallions," said Morrison, definitely not quoting the condition book.

Jackson took the best dirt horse in the world -- two-time Horse of the Year Curlin -- and ran him on the grass because he wanted to find out if Curlin could make a historic run at the world's best grass race the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1). Jackson also ran Curlin on Santa Anita's experimental, synthetic Pro-Ride surface in the Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) instead of keeping him on the dirt tracks he excelled on.

Jackson will not limit Rachel Alexandra's campaign based on a regard for his competitors' breeding values. Nor will he keep her in races restricted to females because "fillies should run against fillies," as Morrison suggested.

It was the filly Rags to Riches who upset Curlin in the 2007 Belmont in what is likely to go down as one of the best races of the era, perhaps ever.

The Triple Crown is racing's greatest stage. If this year's Preakness features a matchup between one of the fastest fillies of modern times, an improbable 50-1 longshot who made the cover of Sports Illustrated, and the three colts who finished behind him in a blanket finish in the Derby slop, sports fans and racing will be the winners.

Succeed or fail, that kind of competitive spirit should be saluted.