Rachael Alexandra drills at Saratoga
Rachael Alexandera, Reigning Horse of the Year, swept five furlongs on the Okalhoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course this Monday morning. Her jockey at the Saratoga events will be Calvin Borel. Trainer Steve Asmussen accompanied EDT, the sixth ranked pony clocked in at 1:02:45. She was considered very strong by the trainers.
The last Stake that Rachael Alexandera won was the Lady’s Stakes at the Monmouth Park on the 24th of July, which was her first victory after finishing two races in the beginning of the year as a runner up. This race earned her $ 400,000. Her next scheduled race is worth $ 300,000 which is the Personal Ensign Stakes Grade I at the Saratoga on the 29th of August. Her trainer, Asmussen, has only made her work half a mile following a race. According to the trainer, the cooler weather has had a positive impact on the energy levels of Rachael Alexandera since she has been working more than normal. She was just galloping in the last few days.
Rachael has maintained a good record in the past since she won over the males at the BlackBerry Preakness Stakes Grade I last year, which was a distance of 1 3/16 miles, the Haskell Invitational Stakes Grade I in 2010, and the Woodward Stakes Grade I at Saratoga which she won against older horses. She will cover a distance of 1 ¼ miles in the Personal Ensign.
The way Rachael gallops out of every race is something very unique about her. This quality of hers is also seen during her training exercises. Her trainer Asmussen is happy to be back at Saratoga, after their success at the same race course last year.
Personal Ensign is an important race for Racahel as this will be her first Grade I race of the year, and thus is going to have three more work outs before the final race. She is owned by Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables and Harold McCormick and has a track record of winning 13 out of the 18 races that she participated in. She has taken $3,446,730 in purse earnings. With every race, the horse has shown improvement in her performance. The trainer is very pleased with her last race, especially with how calmly she breezed through the track without pulling the jockey, Calvin Borel. Asmussen considers this her key to future success.
Rachael will face alot of competition at the Saratoga events in the form of Zenyatta. Fans of eager to see both record setting horses perform against one another. Zenyatta became the first female horse to win the Breeders Cup last year, in the 26 years of the Breeder’s Cups existence. While Rachael has been the only female horse to have won the Woodward against older males, in the past 56 years of the cups existence, and that too at just 3 years of age. Her victory at the Personal Ensign however is highly unpredictable. Those who favour Rachael, say that she ran 9 furlongs on synthetic in a time of 1:49, and won a nine furlongs race on the dirt in 1:50.71, so it it clearly evident that both horses are just about equally matched.
Zenyatta has recently won only two races on the dirt which were both at the Oaklawn Park, the rest were finished on artificial tracks. Her victory in two Grade I races has proved how good a horse she really is. She is currently under the training of Bob Baffert who has a number of stables in Southern California, training is taking place in Hollywood which is also her home base. He had been keeping a close eye on the way she had been galloping and raceing for the past three years, especially at Del Mar and Saratoga and was very keen to take on the horses training responsibilities.
The way Bob trains his horses is unmatched by any other trainer in the Hollywood Park area but his attitude towards people is questionable. Those in favour of Zenyatta say that Rachael has not finished a nine furlong race in less than 1:48 in about two years now, while Zenyatta is considered to be a perfect 17-0 in her career.
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