5/1/10
Last updated: 4/30/10 9:31 PM
THEY SAID IT
APRIL 30, 2010
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Jess Jackson
(Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com) |
The following are quotes from Jess Jackson following RACHEL ALEXANDRA’s
(Medaglia d’Oro) runner-up effort in Friday’s La Troienne S. (G2) at Churchill
Downs:
“She went right to the shed. She’s on her toes. She ate her oats.
She’s happy and sound. We’re happy with her. We love her anyway. We’re
not trying to break track records yet. She needs another race or two
under her belt, I think, before she’s back. And that’s what our hope
is.”
Rachel
Alexandra’s condition following the race
“Of course, but she’s not ready. Zenyatta (Street Cry [Ire]) might be
ready, I don’t know, but after a six-month layoff you don’t ask a horse
to come back. Look at all the horses she beat in the Woodward (G1) or
the Preakness (G1). They’re in this race (the Alysheba [G3]), four or
five of them, and they’re not back yet.”
Possible
Rachel Alexandra/Zenyatta match-up
“I gave him no directions. Now maybe (trainer) Steve (Asmussen) did.
I just said, ‘go out and let her run.’ “
On
whether he gave any instructions to jockey Calvin Borel
|
“That’s not decided, of course. (Trainer) Steve (Asmussen) and I have to talk
about it.”
Will
Borel keep the mount on Rachel Alexandra
 |
Rachel Alexandra
(Harold Roth/Horsephotos.com) |
“I don’t want to get into controversy. The jocks, God bless them, read the
race the way they want to read the race and not always do we interrupt.
Instructions in a given race are more up to the trainer than to me. We didn’t
want her in New Orleans to go on the lead. She went wide and she didn’t have
enough at the end. That’s a normal progression. I’m not disappointed with those
two races. I don’t know how to say it but we love her and she’s going to
improve, I hope. I expect she will. She could be 10 lengths better than she was
today and when she shows me that I’ll know she’s back.”
When
asked if he was happy with Borel’s ride
“I was confident that we had a chance but I’m never confident in any race
that we’re going to win if you mean certain. There’s no ‘certain’ in this
sport.”
Confidence level
going into the La Troienne
“We’ve got to talk and see how the horse comes back. So far it looks like
she’s come back nice but I predicted down in New Orleans that she was only 80
percent and this couldn’t define her as 100 that’s for sure. It’s part of the
foundation you have to build race by race and Steve and I are real satisfied,
most importantly, that she came back fine, nothing wrong with her. She’s still
got a lot of pep in her and that’s why I said that I don’t know that we used all
of her this race. It’s not necessarily true that we should; we’re building a
foundation in these races.”
What’s
next for Rachel Alexandra
|
“She’s not going to retire.”
On being asked
about the bay four-year-old’s future on the track
“They love her, and deservedly. She’s done something no other filly’s ever
done.”
The
crowd’s reaction when Rachel Alexandra came onto the track
“That’s undetermined, too. It’s interesting that they put her up one pound
against the horse that beat her last time and put the other horse down one
pound. But that’s for gamblers. I’m more concerned about the horse than
handicapping. That said, I don’t think that weight difference was the
difference.”
On the
possibility of going to the Stephen Foster H. (G1) on June 12
