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She did it. Rachel Alexandra wins Woodward |
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Written by Sean Clancy
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September 05, 2009 |
She came, she conquered. She fought, she won.
“Calvin kept telling me, ‘You wait until they look at her, there will
be more.’ He said that every time,” Steve Asmussen said after Rachel
Alexandra won the Woodward. “I’m like, ‘How the hell would you know?’
How would you know?”
Borel knew. Now we all know.
Rachel Alexandra proved her mettle matched her talent in an epic
renewal of the Grade I Woodward Stakes. The iconic filly rocked seven
older horses and rocked Saratoga like it’s never been rocked. Hooked
early, harassed throughout and hanging tough at the end, Rachel
Alexandra became the first filly to win the Woodward Stakes. In 56
runnings, only six had tried the 9-furlong $750,000 race.
They gave her nothing. She dispatched Da’ Tara from his attempt at
setting the pace, then shook off Past The Point on the turn,
stiff-armed Bullsbay at the eighth pole and finally held off Macho
Again to win by head. Rachel Alexandra finished in 1:48.29.
Owned by Stonestreet Stable and Harold McCormick, Rachel Alexandra went
off 3-10 in the field of eight and improved her 2009 mark to a perfect
8-for-8. She’s won five consecutive Grade I stakes. They read long and
tall – the Kentucky Oaks, Preakness, Mother Goose, Haskell and
Woodward. Three-year-old fillies, 3-year-olds males and now older
males. What else is there?
The talk all year has been about Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, the
undefeated champion from California, squaring off in the Breeders’ Cup,
the Beldame, the Mattress Mac Cup. That looks anti-climactic after the
Woodward.
Rachel Alexandra broke alertly from stall 3, Borel kept her well off
the rail going into the first turn. Her cruising speed propelled her to
tangle with Da’ Tara who had the rail and the lead. Rachel Alexandra
took over from last year’s Belmont winner after a quarter-mile in 22.85
seconds. Past The Point tracked in third with Cool Coal Man fourth and
It’s A Bird grappling for a part of the front flight. Bullsbay relaxed
in sixth, with Asiatic Boy and second choice Macho Again biding their
time after a half in 46.41.
“She broke a little sharper than I thought she would but Steve talked
to me the day before and he said she might be sharper. He was right,”
Borel said. “She got a little aggressive and left running. Everything
he said might happen did happen. He told me just to wait as long as I
could before I really asked her. I rode her just like that, from there,
that’s all I can do.”
Past The Point picked up the baton from Da’ Tara as Rachel Alexandra
rolled into the far turn. Last year’s Woodward runner-up got to her
saddle towel. That’s all. Bullsbay ducked inside Past The Point, who
carried It’s A Bird and Asiatic Boy wide coming off the turn, and made
third run at the filly. The Whitney winner ranged up to her flank and
that’s all. Borel slapped her on the right shoulder, then switched and
hit her three times on the left side. Macho Again roared past Bullsbay
to take a fourth run at Rachel Alexandra who clung to the rail and the
lead. Borel switched his whip back to his right and transformed into
his Borel scrub, pumping and hitting like he’s waving a blanket at a
bull. Macho Again chased her all the way to the line but couldn’t get
past her, ultimately failing by a head. Macho Again tries hard every
time. This time, he couldn’t pin her shoulders to the floor.
“I always knew she’d have it. She’s the best horse I’ve ever been on.
She had to prove herself today, but I already knew she could run like
that. Nobody else gets to ride her in a race so there’s no way to
describe it to them,” Borel said. “It was an unbelievable performance.
You wouldn’t imagine the feeling. I don’t know how good she really is.
Nobody does. Every time they come up to her, she just goes again. She
doesn’t want to let anyone by her.”
As Borel wagged and waved after the race, Asmussen hugged assistant
Scott Blasi and owner Jess Jackson and then walked into the winner’s
circle to await the $2.9 million earner. As she walked in, Asmussen
raised his hands above his head and clapped like he was a fan on the
apron at the quarter pole. After the photos, the only filly to ever win
the Woodward headed for the test barn.
Asmussen grabbed his children, signed photos and programs, sat down at
the press conference, signed photos and programs and then hopped the
back fence of the jocks’ room to go see the best in the world.
“I don’t know what to say. I really don’t,” Asmussen said. “You can
change everything about races but the outcome. You can want it but this
isn’t a movie, they don’t go according to script. You’ve got to go and
do it. People tell you, you can’t lose, then, guess what, they open the
betting window and let you bet on it. I’m just nervous, I can’t help
it. I wouldn’t go downstairs until they put her number up, that’s me.”
Jackson balances Asmussen’s nerves with audacious confidence. As the
racing world ogled over Rachel Alexandra’s 20-length romp in the Oaks
and dreamed of what she would have done in the Kentucky Derby, Jackson
stepped up to find out what she could do in the Preakness. He bought
her from breeder Dolphus Morrison and transferred her from Hal Wiggins
to Asmussen. Dominic Terry began getting on the daughter of Medaglia
d’Oro.
She won the Preakness, 15 days after winning the Oaks. They skipped the
Belmont, regrouped and won the Mother Goose with ease. Shipped to
Monmouth Park, Rachel Alexandra swept the Haskell over eventual Travers
winner Summer Bird. The Woodward made 11 for her career, eight this
year. She’s beaten males in three of her last four starts.
Pushing the envelope? This is pushing the mail truck.
“Honestly, no slight exaggeration, when the options are out there,
‘what could you run in?’ He’s taken the spot,” Asmussen said of
Jackson. “We all know how hard it is to be brilliant once in a row,
eight in a row, oh my gosh. She was going in 59 at Oaklawn in February.
I’ve never seen anything like her.”
Borel, who fell off in the post parade when Rachel Alexandra reacted to the crowd noise, is in awe of his filly.
“It’s emotional. It’s a filly running against the boys, running that
well, trying that hard,” he said. “She won the Woodward, and she had to
work at it. One after another she fought them off.”
Back at the test barn, Asmussen watched Rachel Alexandra cool out.
Leaning on a wooden rail, on his own, he was part racing fan, part
caretaker of the best horse in the country.
“I’m proud of her, proud for her,” Asmussen said. “She gets to keep
that twinkle in her eye. Everybody says they can do it, but you’ve got
to prove it. She proved it. I coulda, I woulda, I shoulda, she woulda,
she coulda . . . she did it. She came through didn’t she? I cried, I’ve
never cried at a horse race. It moved me.”
With that, Javier Espinoza led Rachel Alexandra from the test barn,
across Union Avenue and back down to stall 1 of Asmussen’s barn on the
Oklahoma side.
“That is one of the fastest horses that ever lived. That’s the only
3-year-old filly to win the Woodward,” Asmussen said. “The other
morning, Dominic said she could have actually left the ground if he
asked.”
On Saturday afternoon, she left the ground. And took Saratoga with her.
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