Rachel Alexandra ready for special duty
The Kentucky Oaks is meant to be the star of the show but it seems destined to be upstaged by a real diva this year.
The Oaks is traditionally the headline race for Friday’s card at Churchill Downs, before the main event of the Derby on Saturday. But the spotlight will surely be diverted, following Rachel Alexandra when she runs in the Grade Two La Troienne earlier in the afternoon.
On the same day a year ago Rachel Alexandra left her calling card as a star attraction when she demolished the field to win the Oaks by a jaw-dropping 20 lengths, with jockey Calvin Borel reduced to be little more than a well-remunerated passenger.
That win was part of a nine-race unbeaten streak that took Rachel Alexandra to the coveted Horse of the Year title for 2009. However, it was the edifice of her supremacy that suffered a few chips when she ran for the first time this year in the New Orleans Ladies at Fair Grounds last month. It was meant to be a mere preliminary bout before the big clash with the other queen of American racing, Zenyatta. What it turned into was what it had always been – a horserace – and one that Rachel Alexandra lost by three-quarters of a length to Zardana housed, with a twist of irony like a knife turned through the initial wound, in the same yard as Zenyatta.
Suddenly plans for a mega-bucks race featuring Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta were put into cold storage until there has been a little rebuffing of the reputation. Even before that race Steve Asmussen, Rachel Alexandra’s trainer, has said that the filly was “not one hundred per cent fit” and he goes into this week believing that his horse is still some way short of her mountainous peak.
As he told the Daily Racing Form: "She has looked very good in the morning here. Since New Orleans we've relaxed, given our works more spacing, stayed on routine. But I also remember what she looked like working last summer at Saratoga, almost un-equine at times. She's in the right direction but by no means is she at the level she was at last summer.
"I think Calvin's in a lot better position this time because he isn't trying to overcome a lack of fitness where we knew we were before," Asmussen added. "It's just a lot more comfortable for everybody in the fact we're simply fitter than we were then."
In the Ladies, Borel had Rachel Alexandra close to the early pace of Fighter Wing, led into the last turn but then lost a home-stretch duel. John Shirreffs, who trains Zardana, is under no illusions that his mare has suddenly become world-beater but he has not shipped in for the fun of seeing Zardana trailing behind Rachel Alexandra either.
"She's doing very well and we're very excited to be running in this race," Shirreffs said. "Obviously beating her again will be a difficult task, but we knew she was in there when we entered. I'm hoping this race will go the same way as the last one, that there will be enough pace and she can lay just off it again."
Criquette Head-Maarek will be hoping that Special Duty’s next race does not go like her last one. Then the market leader for the stanjames.com 1000 Guineas was beaten in the Prix Imprudence at Maisons-Laffitte three weeks ago. Since then the 88.60secs of the Imprudence have been debated endlessly, with the main point of deliberation being whether the seventh, and final, furlong of that race marked the point when Special Duty’s stamina gave way.
Special Duty showed no signs of such limitations when she won at Newmarket last season, over six furlongs, in the Cheveley Park Stakes. Asked after that race to compare Special Duty with her three previous Cheveley Park winners, Head-Maarek replied: “She has the heart of Ravinella, the class of Ma Biche and the physique of Pas De Reponse." Which sounds promising except that the first two won the following year's 1,000 Guineas, while Pas De Reponse failed to stay.
Breeding pundits are split on the issue. Special Duty's dam ran only once but is a sister to Sightseek, who was a winner of seven Grade One races in America, of which six were run over an extended mile or nine furlongs and Head-Maarek, speaking before the Imprudence, said: "From the mother's side she's got a lot of stamina and we have worked her to relax a lot, so she's much quieter and now she can't wait behind and doesn't pull any more.”
The defeat could just as easily have been the convergence of three factors. She was running on ground that was softer than she had encountered before, she was not at full race fitness and – with that in mind - Stephane Pasquier was not pushing her too far for a race that did not really matter so close to the one that really does. Speaking this week Head-Maarek said: "She was not a hundred per cent fit because my target was always to take her to the Guineas. It's been a very cold winter and the fillies are quite backward this year. She has improved physically since that race."
Kieren Fallon, who will be riding Seta in the Guineas, encapsulated the dilemma facing backers and the opposition runners when he said: “If Special Duty gets the trip she’s the one they all have to beat.”
If he is right we may have another diva on centre stage.
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