Horse racing

Rachel, Zenyatta and what's good for racing

And so if not the Belmont, where will she race? That’s the question, as the poet would say.

Rachel Alexandra will have a workout Monday morning at Churchill Downs, said her trainer, Steve Asmussen.  And that could be the first step toward an answer. But at this point, two things seem clear: She has many options, and the most attractive options are all in New York.

For the remainder of the year, New York has a virtual monopoly on lollapalooza possibilities. For 3-year-old fillies, the only Grade I stakes that aren’t sprints or turf affairs are in New York: the Mother Goose on June 27 at Belmont, the Coaching Club American Oaks on July 25 at Belmont, the Alabama on Aug. 22 at Saratoga and the Gazelle on Nov. 28 at Aqueduct.

The goal and ambition for Rachel Alexandra is a campaign that leads to horse racing’s highest honor, Horse of the Year. Already she has won the country’s most prestigious race for 3-year-old fillies, the Kentucky Oaks; and, of course, she already has raced successfully outside her division, beating “the boys” in the Preakness. History argues that to be considered for the golden Eclipse Award a filly should defeat males. (Azeri is the only exception.) And so Rachel Alexandra already has a good argument. No other horse is more dominant within a division. Zenyatta, yes, is equally dominant, but Rachel Alexandra has won outside her division.

Were she to remain with 3-year-old fillies for the rest of the year, Rachel Alexandra would still make a cogent argument that she deserves the sport’s top award if she wins, say, three of the major stakes in New York. She may be the most famous racehorse in the country at the moment, and wherever she runs, a festival will break out. Each race will become a celebration of her talent; each race a headline event.

Of course, she could again step outside her division and run in the Haskell on Aug. 2 at Monmouth or the Travers on Aug. 29 at Saratoga. But there seems little incentive to do that, except, or course, for the money involved. Both races offer $1 million purses.

But Jess Jackson, the majority owner of Rachel Alexandra, isn’t motivated by money. Without hesitation, he turned his back on millions of dollars by racing Curlin as a 4-year-old. But that golden Eclipse motivates Jackson, along with a desire to establish Rachel Alexandra as one of the best fillies of the last 50 years. And, of course, he’s motivated, as much as any owner in the game today, by a desire to promote the sport.

And a Rachel-Zenyatta showdown would promote the sport. It would be one of the most anticipated races of the year. One of the most anticipated races in many years. It would be Ali-Frazier, Dodgers-Yankees, Fischer-Spassky.

In 1944, on her way to becoming the first filly ever to earn honors as the Horse of the Year, Twilight Tear won 14 of 17, and seven times she won against males. The next year, on her way to earning honors as the Horse of the Year, Busher won 10 of 13, and four times the filly won against males. But they never raced against each other. In her first start of 1945, Twilight Tear bled severely and was retired. The sport no doubt anticipated a showdown, but it never happened.

This one can. And it should.

If Zenyatta is to have any chance for Horse of the Year, she has to beat either males or Rachel Alexandra. And if Rachel Alexandra is to be regarded as one of the greatest fillies the sport has seen, she has to beat Zenyatta.

The Zenyatta connections have said they have no incentive to race their champion outside of California. And Jackson has indicated he’s reluctant to race Rachel Alexandra on a synthetic surface.

But the most compelling reasons for their meeting aren’t pragmatic and have nothing to do with trophies or even posterity and history. As the ever eloquent Jay Hovdey said, the owners should make this happen for the good of the sport. Their meeting would create the one race that could excite the entire country. And, fortunate for racing, these owners – Ann and Jerry Moss with Zenyatta, Jackson with Rachel Alexandra – are among those who might actually do what’s best for racing.

And the most attractive place for a showdown could be the Beldame on Oct. 3 at Belmont. Yes, New York has a virtual monopoly on lollapalooza possibilities.
 

About Rachel and all the flapdoodle

Imagine waking up in the morning, getting dressed and pulling on your boots only to discover they’re full of flapdoodle. You may not expect to find flapdoodle in your boots any more than you’d expect a family of chipmunks to reside in your medicine cabinet; then again, you probably don’t work in the media.

Anyway – trust me on this – flapdoodle is everywhere. I have a flapdoodle allergy, and I’m very sensitive to it. And since Rachel Alexandra won the Kentucky Oaks, the Bikini Code Flapdoodle Alert has gone from black to amber and, since the Preakness, to red.

On the one hand, people are saying Rachel Alexandra should run in the
Belmont Stakes because it’ll be good for horse racing, and it’s the sporting thing to do, and her connections owe it to racing and God bless Belmont Park. The ironic beauty of this is that some of the run-run folks are the very people who’ll scream she shouldn’t have run if things were not to go well in New York.

On the other hand, some people are saying Rachel Alexandra shouldn’t run in the Belmont because the race is so demanding, and she’s a filly after all, and, oh my, wouldn’t it be dangerous?

Now, that’s flapdoodle intensive, flapdoodle large, flapdoodle cubed. Bikini Red flapdoodle.

Whether she should or shouldn’t run in the Belmont has absolutely nothing to do with gender. The Preakness is hard to win regardless of gender; the Belmont is demanding regardless of gender. Running in three major stakes in five weeks is especially grueling regardless of gender; that’s why nobody has swept the Triple Crown since 1978.

What’s especially amusing about all this flapdoodle is that the people who are saying she should or shouldn’t run in the Belmont haven’t seen her this morning. Didn’t see her yesterday either. Probably haven’t seen her since the Preakness and perhaps haven’t seen her at all except on TV. They have no way of knowing how she’s training or what her energy level might be. Her trainer, Steve Asmussen, has been with her several mornings since the Preakness. His assistant, Scott Blasi, sees her every morning. But the flapdoodle mongers, who haven’t seen her and, in some cases, have rarely visited the backside of a racetrack or been close to a racehorse in their entire lives, are presuming to tell these excellent horsemen what they should or should not do. Amazing.

Anyway, I won’t presume to say she should or shouldn’t run. I’m confident, though, that her connections will make the right decision.

Beyond that, I’ll be very surprised if she runs. But my surprise would have more to do with my experience around other horses, not Rachel Alexandra. Because of the cooler pace, the Belmont can actually be an easier race on horses than the Preakness. Still, after such a demanding effort – she ran the opening half-mile in 46.71 at Pimlico, then put away a very good horse in Big Drama and then persevered through the lane – running in the Belmont Stakes would make sense only if she were going for a sweep of the Triple Crown. That would be true for just about any horse in my experience, not just a filly. But saying that says more about me than it does about Rachel Alexandra, who may be the exception, and if she’s kicking the barn down – well, again, I’m confident the connections will make the right decision.

Everybody loves Calvin

Everybody loves Calvin.

As Jason Gray asked in The Wall Street Journal, “Don’t you just want to let Calvin Borel saddle up for every sporting event?” Well, yes, especially for every horse racing event, and if not Calvin, then somebody like him.

With that question, of course, Gray’s actually contemplating how pleasant the sports world might be if all its stars were as genuine and polite and modest as the jockey who won the Kentucky Derby on Mine That Bird and then won the Preakness on Rachel Alexandra. And with that question, Gray also should remind everybody how thoroughly appealing horse racing can be when the focus isn’t on medication, or breakdowns, or suspensions, but is instead on the racing.

Everybody wants to see a good guy win, and Borel's a good guy, an innocent. He'd probably think self-serving machinations and devious ploys were rock bands. He's the common denominator, an affable everyman who's void of deception and free of egocentrism. And so he connects in ways that most sports personalities never can. And not just with sports fans. This week, people who rarely follow the sport were stopping me to say, “Did you see how he poured the water over the horse’s head before he took any himself?”

Yes, I said, I saw him pour the water on her head.

And, “He really loves that filly, doesn’t he?”

Yes, he really loves her.

Borel connected with the audience, as one headline put it, when he appeared on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno,” and he’ll connect again when he appears with Jim Rome on ESPN. Now, there’s a contrast. Rome’s more insightful and intelligent than the typically obtuse TV sports commentator; still, his shtick generally includes rude aggression. And so when he’s on camera with Borel, they’ll probably look very much like Jabba The Hut and Princess Leia. Afterwards, somebody might again wonder how great indeed it would be if Borel saddled up for every event.

In such wondering, there's a frustration, not so much with sports as with the modern sports star. Borel is his antithesis. That's part of his appeal. With their millions of dollars and their spoiled attitudes, sports stars have distanced themselves from the very fans responsible for their stardom. But not Borel. He rides in part for the folks in the grandstand who bet their two bucks. Nobody handed him a scholarship, or a free ride or a multi-million-dollar contract. He always had to struggle and work his way into the winner’s circle to earn his money.

He’s not, as a venerable racetrack pundit put it, one of those guys who were born on third base and thought they hit a triple. Borel’s background is as modest as he is; as a youngster he slept many nights in the tack room of barns at small racetracks in Louisiana. Long before he became known as Bo-rail and long before he became one of the sport’s stars, he was known as the hardest working person on the racetrack, one of the first to arrive and one of the last to leave.

And when Borel responds to questions from the media, he doesn’t reply with trite vacuous answers he has memorized from watching “Sports Center,” answers intended to obfuscate rather than communicate, and he doesn’t talk endlessly about himself, begging for attention and compliments and then running off to surround himself with sycophants. Rather he answers sincerely and honestly, often with exuberance and enthusiasm, as if carried away by the sudden awareness of his own good fortune.

Yes, it makes you wish Borel would saddle up for every race. It also makes you wish horse racing might learn something from Borel’s popularity, learn specifically that it has something to offer that other sports can only envy.
 

Some good ones are coming for Million Day

The workout was the best I’ve seen at Lone Star Park this year; the exercise rider had his feet planted in the floorboard, his toes pointed to the sky and his body leaning backwards, and still the filly worked five-eighths of a mile in a bullet 1:00.40; she galloped out six furlongs in 1:12.80, and it was all accomplished with ridiculous ease. Anyway, that evening, Hotlantic’s workout still vivid in my memory, I told her trainer, Dallas Keen, “Anybody coming here to take her on better bring a very good horse.”

I was referring, of course, to the upcoming $200,000 Ouija Board Distaff, which will be run Monday, along with five other stakes, all part of Lone Star’s Million Day. (Actually, though, the purses total $1.1 million.) As it turns out, some good horses indeed are coming to Lone Star to take on Hotlantic, winner of the Irving Distaff. And some very good horses could be aimed at the other stakes as well.

Million Day is typically the highlight of the Lone Star season. And Monday’s renewal already looks as if it could become one of the better days of racing in recent years. Three of the day’s six stakes are graded – the $400,000 Lone Star Park Handicap, the $200,000 Dallas Turf Cup and the Ouija Board. The others – the $100,000 USA Stakes, the $100,000 Cinemine and the $100,000 Valid Expectations – have also produced some memorable performances, such as romps by Storm Mesa and Anet and a record by Savorthetime.

Among the possibilities to take on Hotlantic in the Ouija Board, according to stakes coordinator Mike Shamburg, are Cat By the Tale, a stakes winner in Ireland who would be making her stakes debut in America for trainer Neil Drysdale; Bootleg Annie, a winner of three straight in Southern California; Fibberjibit, who ran  third in the Honey Fox Stakes at Gulfstream Park; Secret Gypsy, who won the Distaff Handicap at Aqueduct; and Superior Storm, a multiple stakes winner of $639,498 who ran second in the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park.

The Dallas Turf Cup could be an exciting rematch, bringing back the top two horses from a year ago, Church Service and Storm Military, who were a nose apart at the wire. Also among those expected are Red Rock Creek, El Caballo, Gold Wonder and Precious Colony.

And the Lone Star Park Handicap could match two of the better older horses in the country: It’s A Bird and Researcher. In January, It’s A Bird won the Sunshine Millions Classic and more recently added the Oaklawn Handicap to his growing list of victories; that put him at $1,172,885 in earnings. Researcher has won six of his last seven, including a convincing score over an accomplished group in the Charles Town Classic. Last year he won the Queens Country Handicap at Aqueduct. Also among those possible are Magnum, Z Fortune and Song Of Navarone, who has won four consecutive stakes in New Mexico.

Hearing postponed

Steve Asmussen’s hearing before the Lone Star stewards, which had been scheduled for this morning, has been postponed.

“There was a problem with some of the witnesses getting here,” explained Steward Jerry Burgess. No definite date has been set for the hearing. But Charlie Hallam, the Texas Racing Commission investigator, said the hearing will probably be re-scheduled for next month.

The hearing stems from a positive test for a metabolite of the local anesthetic lidocaine. After Timber Trick, who was trained by Asmussen, easily won a maiden race at Lone Star Park as the even-money favorite on May 10 of last year, her post-race urine sample produced the “positive” test. Texas has a no-tolerance policy regarding lidocaine, which is common in many over-the-counter products.

This case has seen several delays. The Texas Racing Commission had requested delays so that its representatives could prepare. This most recent delay resulted from travel problems. Asmussen and his attorneys were here, but Steven Barker, the head of Louisiana’s testing lab at LSU in Baton Rouge, was not.

Although the Texas Racing Commission has not released any results quantifying the presence of the metabolite in the Timber Trick sample, Barker has indicated that the data he has examined suggests contamination. Maggi Moss, an attorney for Asmussen, said Barker was absent this morning because his travel and flight plans had been disrupted by bad weather.

“This is very frustrating,” Asmussen said. “It’s frustrating just to be in this position and to have this hang over everything we do.” Asmussen is expected to enter Rachel Alexandra in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes at Pimlico in Baltimore.

A conspiracy to stop Rachel?

The irony of it all would be hugely amusing if it weren’t also so disturbing. An Egyptian entrepreneur educated in America and a New Mexico rowdy implicated in Alaska’s corruption scandal are going to say somebody doesn’t belong?

Apparently it might happen. Ahmed Zayat, the owner of Kentucky Derby runner-up Pioneerof The Nile, said this morning in an interview on HRTV that he might enter an additional horse in Saturday’s Preakness Stakes in an effort to keep out Rachel Alexandra, the Oaks winner who would have to be supplemented. The Preakness field is limited to 14.

Even worse, Zayat said he has discussed the strategy with Mark Allen, co-owner of Derby winner Mine That Bird. And Allen might enter another horse, too: a maiden named Indy Express.

If they or anybody else follows through on such a strategy, if anybody enters a horse in an effort to avoid competition with a worthy filly, the move will be an insult to sportsmanship in general and to horse racing in particular. It would insult the sport’s fans. Moreover, if Allen does indeed enter Indy Express, he will destroy all the goodwill Mine That Bird created.

One of horse racing’s virtues, as I’ve said many times, is that it’s the most democratic of sports. And one of the qualities that attract people to sports is the promise of virtue rewarded and made vivid. The first one to the wire wins, and the team that scores more runs or more points wins, all within a span of minutes or hours on a stage that’s usually known as a field or a ballpark or a racetrack, where determination and courage and talent are all vividly displayed.

But here we have the possibility of people apparently willing to manipulate the rules to their advantage just because they can -- fraternity boys run amok, petty knaves with bankrolls -- and if they do so they’ll drag the Triple Crown down to the level of the conspirator.

And what about the horses that will be entered in the service of their owners’ egos and machinations? Don’t these people care about their horses? Such a move would suggest otherwise, and that, as much as anything, is what’s so disturbing about this, for what kind of image, what kind of message, does it present?

Baffert on Rachel and the Preakness

Bob Baffert on Rachel Alexandra and her possible start in the second event of the Triple Crown: “The Preakness was a vanilla ice cream cone, but suddenly it’s become a banana split with all the toppings.”

Baffert has commented several times on Rachel Alexandra’s talent; the newly minted Hall of Fame trainer respects the sensational filly tremendously. After she won the Oaks, he said we’ve just seen greatness, and perhaps we did.

Still, he said a filly faces a tough task when she takes on males.

“It’s completely different when a filly has to eyeball one or two colts,” Baffert said.

As for his own involvement in the Preakness, Baffert said he’ll decide soon. He plans to be at Lone Star Park for Saturday’s local derby, where he’ll saddle Mythical Power and Mayor Marv. And then Baffert will travel to Kentucky, where Pioneerof The Nile, the Kentucky Derby runner-up, will have a workout, probably Monday. The Preakness decision will follow. But Baffert said everything so far looks good for Pioneerof The Nile.

To the Preakness, but first some credit for the little gelding

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The day after, excuses and explanations are always in the air, like pollen. And no doubt many of the excuses and explanations for poor performances in Saturday’s Kentucky Derby are valid.

Friesan Fire has minor cuts and scrapes, front and back, to show for his Derby experience. He never had a chance to run. Dunkirk stumbled badly and stumbled again. Some horses obviously didn’t handle the “sloppy” track.

But give the little gelding credit. Mine That Bird ran an extraordinary race. It may have been impossible to predict or anticipate; even his connections said they would have been thrilled with just a respectable performance, a fourth maybe. But the horse had other plans.

Mine That Bird, by my calculations, ran the final quarter-mile in 23.77 seconds and the final half-mile – he was 17 lengths back after six furlongs -- in 47.17. That’s extraordinary. And so I don’t care if I Want Revenge and Quality Road had been in the field, Mine That Bird very well could have won anyway.

The Derby may have brought out something special in the horse; then again, he may never duplicate that performance and his Derby may have been the unprecedented and unique result of unusual circumstances. But with that effort Saturday, Mine That Bird certainly deserved to win the Derby. Not only did he win by nearly seven lengths, but he galloped out stronger than anybody else in the field.

Anyway, now it’s on to Baltimore and the second event in the Triple Crown.

Here are the probabilities and possibilities for the Preakness:

Mine That Bird: His trainer, Bennie “Chip” Wooley Jr. said they’ll decide in a day or two. The Derby winner is by Birdstone, winner of the 2004 Belmont, and so the final event in the Triple Crown may be more appealing.

Pioneerof The Nile: Trainer Bob Baffert said he wants to give the horse a couple days before deciding, but this morning the Derby runner-up looked good and probable for the Preakness.

Musket Man: His trainer, Derek Ryan, said they’re “looking” at the Preakness.

Papa Clem: The Arkansas Derby winner was squeezed a little down the lane, perhaps missing a chance to finish second, and so his trainer, Gary Stute, is eager to go on to the next one.

Join In The Dance: Todd Pletcher said “there’s a chance” he’ll come back in the Preakness.

Take The Points: Pletcher said he was pointing him to the Preakness.

Friesan Fire: He came out of the Derby looking as if he had been in a fight. But the cuts and scrapes are superficial, said Larry Jones, and the Derby favorite will probably go on to the Preakness.

Big Drama: He would be a very intriguing addition to the lineup. I haven’t spoken to his trainer, David Fawkes, this week, but when last we talked, he said that going to Preakness was the plan, with the Lone Star Derby as a backup. Although disqualified to second in the Swale, Big Drama has finished first in six consecutive races.

Also possible are Miner’s Escape, a Maryland stakes winner, and Mr. Fantasy, winner of the recent Withers Stakes, according to Mike Gathagan, the director of media relations at Pimlico.

An Acorn for Rachel Alexandra

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Rachel Alexandra was “dragging her groom” around the barn this morning. That’s how her trainer, Hal Wiggins, described the filly the day after she won the Kentucky Oaks by more than 20 lengths.

Her margin of victory was the largest in the history of the race. Hers was also one of the most dominating victories in a major stakes in recent memory.

“She makes my job easy,” said Wiggins, a native of Port Arthur, Texas. “We still don’t know how good she is.”

Rachel’s dominating has been well received by almost everybody in racing, partly because of Wiggins and his wife, Rene, who are universally respected, admired and liked, but also because of the filly herself, who has about her a very special quality that goes beyond talent.

“We saw greatness,” trainer Bob Baffert said about Rachel Alexandra. Baffert saddled Gabby’s Golden Gal, who led the Oaks from the start and into the second turn. “You hate to get beat, but at least we can say we were the last filly who was in front of Rachel Alexandra.”

Hall of Fame D. Wayne Lukas sent out a three-horse entry in the Oaks, and one of them, Stone Legacy, finished second. But Lukas quipped that Rachel Alexandra ran in the 11th race Friday and everybody else in the 12th. Lukas said Rachel Alexandra might be the best filly to come along since Winning Colors.

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott saddled Flying Spur in the Oaks. The filly ran well to finish third. But Mott suggested he won’t be looking for a rematch.

“I guess that at this point no fillies are going to run against her in the good races,” Mott said about Rachel Alexandra. “They’re all just going to go somewhere else.”

Rachel Alexandra will make her next start June 6, Wiggins said, in the $300,000 Acorn Stakes at Belmont Park in New York.

“This gives her five weeks,” Wiggins said. “She had only three weeks before the Fantasy (at Oaklawn  Park), but it looks like she’s fine. . . . Maybe she is the monster people have been talking about.”

 

I Want Revenge will be scratched from the Derby

I Want Revenge Will be scratched from today’s Kentucky Derby. This is the first time in the long history of the race that the morning line favorite was scratched the day of the race.

At a press conference that just ended moments ago, I Want Revenge’s trainer, Jeff Mullins, explained that he found some “pressure and heat” in the colt’s left front ankle this morning. Two veterinarians examined the horse: x-rays revealed nothing. And so the reason for the inflammation is still unknown.

“We felt that in the best interest of the horse we’re not going to run,” Mullins said. The trainer was understandably solemn. Later, he said, “Your biggest dream is to get here, but your worst nightmare is to get here and have to scratch.”

Joe Talamo, the 19-year-old sensation who was set to ride in his first Kentucky Derby, also attended the press conference. “He’s the one who got us here,” he said about I Want Revenge, the winner of the Gotham Stakes and Wood Memorial. “And so we have to do what’s right by the horse.

David Lanzman, who bred the colt and remains in the partnership that owns him, said when he arrived at the barn and learned about the ankle there was no debate.