For Rachel the Season Begins Now

There is a late-Summer ritual in my home that goes something like this … My wife Candice and I will be flicking through the channels when we will pause at an NFL pre-season game. As football fans we take a quick look, but if I happen to be in charge of the remote control that evening, that’s all it is. A quick look. Candice will invariably counter with, “Don’t you want to watch that?” when I say no, she looks at me quizzically and says, “But it’s the Bears!” I explain that it is only the pre-season, and those games mean next to nothing to me. She gives me a bit of a, “hummmph” and we move on, until the next time we happen upon a Chicago Bears pre-season game. On a side note, we rarely ever miss a Bears regular season game, and if they are in the playoffs, it becomes an event. Why all the football talk today? Our little ritual reminds me a great deal of the current season of the superstar filly, Rachel Alexandra. After completing the greatest season by any sophomore filly in the history of the sport last year, Rachel has lost some of her luster to many who follow the sport. As we all know, Rachel began the 2010 season with two narrow defeats in the New Orleans Ladies, and the La Troienne, after a lengthy layoff. In her next two starts, Rachel easily won the Fleur de Lis, and the Lady’s Secret. For most any horse, these four races to begin the season would be met with praise and excitement for the future, but of course, Rachel is not any horse. She is held to a higher standard. This is especially true because the other phenomenal female of modern racing, Zenyatta, has refused to lose in 18 historic starts. But let’s take a look at where Rachel stands as the real important races are set to commence. Much like your favorite football team, Rachel has worked her way through the pre-season, and the early part of the regular season, and is now readying for the important games of the late season and playoffs. This building up during the season is very common in sports, as it is in racing. Many of the greatest fillies I have ever seen have started their four-year-old seasons slowly. Princess Rooney lost three of her first four races as an older horse before winning her final five starts. Her season and career culminated with her best race ever as she romped home in the inaugural Breeders’ Cup Distaff. After a brief freshening in her four-year-old season, Lady’s Secret was defeated by fillies in two separate races before peaking at the end of the year, and taking home Horse of the Year honors. Perhaps the best example can be found with Desert Vixen. A remarkable filly who won back-to-back Eclipse Awards in 1973 and 1974, Desert Vixen ran rough shod over her competition as a three-year-old by winning her final eight races in overpowering fashion. She finished that year with an 8 ½ length romp in the Beldame, leaving Hall of Famer Susan’s Girl in her wake, and setting a track record in the process. To start her career as an older horse, Desert Vixen would lose 5 of her first 6 races. Imagine what the naysayers would be saying today. Proving that the early part of the season meant little, she would go on to win another Eclipse, highlighted by easy wins in the Maskette and Matchmaker, a 12 length masterpiece in the Beldame, and incredibly almost winning the top turf race of the year. On that day, Desert Vixen ran 2nd in the DC International in her only lifetime try on turf, and beating Dahlia in the process. So you see, it is not how you start the year, but how you finish it, that is most important. While some have chose to dismiss her chances against excellent horses like Zenyatta, Blame, and Quality Road, the truth is that Rachel Alexandra is a very special filly who has 13 wins and 4 seconds in 17 races since her debut very early in her juvenile season. She is through the ‘returning to form’ phase of her season, and in the next ten weeks she will have every opportunity to prove her greatness all over again. On Sunday, she will run in the Personal Ensign. A grade 1 at 1 ¼ miles, she will face one of the best horses in America, in Life at Ten, who has won six straight, as well as the improving mare Miss Singhsix. A good test, and one that will lead to progressively more difficult assignments. A win in the Personal Ensign will lead to the Beldame. A win in the Beldame will lead to the Breeders’ Cup. A win in the Breeders’ Cup will be the icing on the cake. Let the playoffs begin.  Will it be easy? Hardly. Can she do it? Yes she can. Photo by Patrick Sheehan