Malibu Prayer (Malibu Moon) led for the blistering opening half-mile, setting
The future champion was never asked for her full run, and Borel began pulling
“How about that!” co-owner Jess Jackson exclaimed. “I am a modest guy. I was
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“We don’t know where her bottom is. She has beauty combined with speed, so
fast. I think she’s the best three-year-old right now. She just broke a track
record and she wasn’t even asked.”
Sent off the prohibitive 1-9 favorite, Rachel Alexandra paid $2.10. Place and
show wagering were canceled, as were the exacta and trifecta. Malibu Prayer was
easily second best, finishing 12 1/4 lengths in front of Flashing to add a Grade 1 second to her lifetime record in her
stakes debut.
“(Trainer) Steve (Asmussen) told me ‘Ride your race. You know her as good as
me and I think she’s a kind of a grinder,’ and I said ‘Yes sir, that’s what she
is,” Borel said. “I think she’s just a wonderful animal, she grinds fast, you
don’t have to be in front, you know, you can take her back.
“She’s a racehorse, this is a racehorse. Believe me, she’s not normal; I’m
telling you, she’s unbelievable. I nudged (her) on the turn for home around the
quarter-pole but that was it. To make sure she’d get something out of it and do
something for me. She set a new track record; believe me, she’s not normal. I’m
telling you, she’s unbelievable.”
Rachel Alexandra has now won nine races, seven of those in succession, and
pushed her earnings to $1,798,354 to go along with her 12-9-2-0 career line. Her only off-the-board run came in her career debut at
Churchill Downs in 2008, but she immediately followed that up with a 1
1/4-length maiden special weight score under the Twin Spires. Second in the
Debutante S. (G3) in her black-type bow, the bay lass next up tried Keeneland’s
Polytrack and recorded a three-length allowance victory. She returned to
Churchill to finish out her juvenile campaign, recording a second in the
Pocahontas S. (G3) and beginning her current win streak with a 4 3/4-length
score in the Golden Rod S. (G2).
That latter race appeared to be a turning point for the filly. She made her
three-year-old debut in the Martha Washington S. at Oaklawn Park, running clear
by eight lengths on the wire, and continued on to school her rivals in the Fair
Grounds Oaks (G2) and Fantasy S. (G2). Rachel Alexandra was a standout in the
Kentucky Oaks (G1), taking over in the stretch and drawing off to a record 20
1/4-length win in that prestigious event, which would turn out to be her last
start under the expert tutelage of trainer Hal Wiggins.
Following her win in the Oaks, Rachel Alexandra was purchased by Jess
Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables of Curlin fame and Harold McCormick from the
partnership of Michael Lauffer and breeder Dolphus Morrison, and subsequently
switched from Wiggins to Asmussen’s barn. Future plans for the filly
also changed, as her previous connections had announced after the Oaks that
Rachel Alexandra would point for the Acorn S. (G1) on the Belmont S. (G1)
undercard on June 6.
Instead, Jackson entered his new star against the boys in the Preakness S.
(G1) two weeks later. That move resulted in Borel taking off his Kentucky Derby
(G1)-winning mount Mine That Bird (Birdstone) to ride the filly. The move paid
off as Rachel Alexandra held off a rallying Mine That Bird by a length to take
the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Rested since that effort, she added to her
growing legend while making her return in this spot.
The Kentucky-bred Rachel Alexandra is the first foal out of the
stakes-winning and Grade 2-placed Lotta Kim (Roar), who has also produced an
unraced juvenile colt by Empire Maker named Empire Ruler. Lotta Kim is a
half-sister to 2001 Pocahontas S. winner Lotta Rhythm (Rhythm), who was third in
that same year’s Golden Rod, as well as last year’s Tejano Run S. victor High
Blues (High Yield). Also included in the female family is 1991 Miss Preakness S.
heroine Missy’s Music (Travelling Music) and Grade 3 winner Devil Diamond
(Devil’s Bag).