A tornado hit Arkansas last week but the damage that was inflicted upon Oaklawn Park racecourse was done miles away down in Louisiana.
Oaklawn had been preparing to hold the first racecourse clash between Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra, in the Apple Blossom Handicap next month. The racecourse executive were going for the full marketing blitz with negotiations to get the Apple Blossom broadcast on national television and $5million on the table in prize money if both horses ran.
However, those grand plans were hit with a bombshell this weekend. Zenyatta did her bit for the sales push, with a 15th straight career win in the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap at Santa Anita on Saturday night, but the Fair Grounds track in Louisiana was far from fun for the team behind Rachel Alexandra.
The New Orleans Ladies looked to be an easy enough first race of the season on paper. Trouble was that the race was run on dirt and when it was Calvin Borel seemed to have problems settling Rachel Alexandra in the early stages. But he appeared to have everything back on script as Rachel Alexandra took up the lead with three furlongs to run. What followed was definitely not in the original draft as Zardana - like Zenyatta, trained by John Shirreffs - blew upsides on the final turn and then won the home-stretch duel to win the race by three-quarters of a length.
Rachel Alexandra had been on something of an accelerated training programme since coming back into work, when the news of Zenyatta’s return to the track for this year offered the chance for the two horses to meet on the track.
The idea behind running in the Ladies had been in an attempt to use this race as a sighter for the Apple Blossom. Rachel Alexandra had made all her scheduled gallops, which had been spaced at intervals of just six days apart since early February, but her major gallop for Saturday's race, on March 2nd, did not go as planned, producing a slower time than her trainer, Steve Asmussen, had expected or wanted.
Whether, in an effort to make the Apple Blossom, Asumssen found himself short of time it would appear Rachel Alexandra came up short this time. “She needed the race, that's all,” Borel told the Daily Racing Form. "She needed the race more than anything.” Asmussen blamed himself for Rachel Alexandra's defeat. “The filly's lacking fitness,” he said. “It was my job to have her there, and I didn't do it.”
Perhaps, but it could be worth noting that Rachel Alexandra has now had two hard races in her last two starts. She was pushed all the way to beat Macho Again by a head in the Grade One Woodward Stakes at Saratoga last September and Borel did not appear to be holding anything back in the Ladies. The question now has to be whether Rachel Alexandra was holding anything back or just how much she still has to give?
Borel believes that the filly who was voted the Horse of the Year is still there, but just not yet ready to deliver the performances that saw her win last year’s Kentucky Oaks by 20 lengths or when she became the first filly in 85 years (since Nellie Morse in 1924) to win the Preakness Stakes. He was in the saddle for both of those and all the other glory runs. “You know how I know she's a real racehorse?” he asked, not waiting for anyone else to proffer an answer. “She was beat when that other horse went by her, but she didn't quit. She dug in and fought right back and stayed with the winner the rest of the way. That's the kind of racehorse she is.”
Her owner, Jesse Jackson, may not be ready to quit but he has decided on a tactical withdrawal. In a press release issued on Sunday he said: “I decided today she will not be going to the Oaklawn Invitational on April 9th. Saturday's race, while a disappointment, helped us define Rachel Alexandra's racing condition. While she is healthy, just as I anticipated, she is not in top form. Steve and I regret we tried to accelerate her training in order to meet the Apple Blossom schedule.
“We have a whole season for us to help define her greatness. She will tell us when her next race will be.”
They may be waiting a little time.
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