Unrivaled Belle outduels Rachel in La Troienne

Last updated: 4/30/10 3:15 PM

Unrivaled Belle (outside) held Rachel Alexandra by a head in the La Troienne
(Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com)

Gary Seidler and Peter Vegso’s homebred UNRIVALED BELLE (Unbridled’s
Song) snuck in under the radar in Friday’s $418,800
La Troienne S. (G2)
at Churchill Downs as the 1 1/16-mile test was billed as the rematch
between Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia d’Oro) and Zardana (Brz) (Crimson
Tide). That match did not develop as Zardana failed to fire under David
Flores. Instead, it was was the Bill Mott-trained Unrivaled Belle who
hooked up with reigning Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra in the
stretch run to just get the victory by a head on the wire.

Rachel Alexandra raced three wide down the backstretch while setting
splits of :48 4/5, 1:12 2/5 and 1:36 2/5 with regular rider Calvin Borel
biding his time. Rounding the turn, the pair found Unrivaled Belle
closing from her stalking spot in third and the match was on. Unrivaled
Belle and Rachel Alexandra ran in tandem down the lane, with the
champion briefly retaking the advantage in midstretch down along the
rail. Kent Desormeaux wasn’t willing to yield yet, though, and continued
urging Unrivaled Belle for more run. The gray lass just got up on the
line to stop the clock in 1:42 4/5 on the fast main track.

“Oh, man, my mare was breathing fire today. I feel like the mouse that stole
the cheese,” Desormeaux said. “I was hoping to be on the lead here today, but
that spot was already taken. So I stayed where I was and waited. I made the lead
and Rachel Alexandra passed me at the head of the lane. But my filly came again.
Then Rachel passed me again at the eighth-pole. But my filly fought back. What a
race for her! She was special today.”

“I had confidence in my filly today; I thought she’s run very well,” Mott
said. “But I wasn’t confident we’d beat Rachel Alexandra. I mean we’re talking
about a champion filly, the Horse of the Year. I told Mr. Vegso to expect that
we’d run well, but not that we were going to win. But here we are.

“My filly ran huge. She just ran great. And I don’t think it was that the
other mare (Rachel Alexandra) ran poorly. She ran her race, too. We just outdid
her. They were eyeball to eyeball there and my filly got her. I saw at the
three-eighths (pole) that Kent was sitting there with a lot of horse. I said
‘All right, we’ve still got something in the tank.’ She ran great through the
lane — all heart.”

Rachel Alexandra (inside) suffered her second straight loss in as many starts this year
(Jim Tyrrell/Horsephotos.com)

Sent off the 9-1 third choice in the six-horse field, Unrivaled Belle
paid $20.80, $3.40 and $2.80 while keying the $33 exacta and $220.40
trifecta. Rachel Alexandra was the prohibitive favorite at 1-5 and gave
back $2.10 and $2.10. It was another five lengths back to Morena (Per)
(Privately Held), who returned $4.80 for rallying from last to take
third. Distinctive Dixie (Fusaichi Pegasus) followed by another eight
lengths to end the 5-4-2-6 superfecta that totaled $997.40.

“She’s just not been as fast as last summer,” trainer Steve
Asmussen said of Rachel Alexandra. “She ran a good race, but not a great
race. She does carry a lot more weight. Calvin (Borel) did absolutely
nothing wrong today. I thought he got along with her great today.

“There’s an old adage in racing: You get paid for what you do, but
you pay for what you do. I think there’s some hangover (from her 2009
campaign). What we have to realize is there has been improvement since
her last race. We don’t need a knee-jerk reaction. The defeat last time
put a lot of pressure on. You don’t run a horse expecting to get beat,
especially Rachel.”

Zardana didn’t offer the same run that saw her beat Rachel Alexandra
by three parts of a length in the New Orleans Ladies S. on March 13 and
checked in fifth. Be Fair (Exchange Rate), who set the opening split of
:24 3/5, rounded out the field under the wire.

Unrivaled Belle now owns just eight career starts and has racked up a 5-2-0
mark for those races. Her only loss on a conventional dirt track came as a nice
fourth in last year’s Gazelle S. (G1) at Aqueduct to close out her sophomore
campaign. She opened 2010 at Santa Anita, running fourth in the La Canada S.
(G2), and the filly followed that by shipping to Gulfstream Park and scoring a
front-running victory in the Rampart S. (G3). The winner’s share from the La
Troienne doubled her lifetime earnings to $524,929.

The Kentucky-bred Unrivaled Belle is out of multiple Grade 2 queen Queenie
Belle (Bertrando) and has a pair of younger half-siblings — an unraced juvenile
colt named Achaemenes (Empire Maker) and an unnamed yearling filly by
Dynaformer. Queenie Belle is herself a half to Group 3 victor Canon Can (Green
Dancer) and this is also the same family as Grade 2-placed multiple stakes
winner Truffles (Don B.).