NEWS
Rachel Alexandra will not run in Breeders’ Cup
Posted: Wednesday, June 24, 2009 5:27 PM
RACHEL ALEXANDRA
Adam Coglianese/NYRA photo
by Steve Bailey
If champion older mare Zenyatta and BlackBerry Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Rachel Alexandra are to meet on the track this season, it will be up to Zenyatta’s connections to pick a race on a dirt surface away from their home base in California.
Stonestreet Stables principal, Jess Jackson, majority owner of the runaway Kentucky Oaks (G1) winner, said during a national teleconference on Wednesday that he is “absolutely certain” he will not run Rachel Alexandra on a “plastic” surface, which would rule out a showdown between the two during the Breeders’ Cup World Championships in November at Santa Anita Park on the track’s synthetic Pro-Ride surface.
“We’d love to see [Zenyatta], but they are going to have to come east or come to some neutral track to run on the dirt,” Jackson said. “I’m not going to run on plastic. I don’t need to risk her that way.
“Zenyatta could come east. She was entered at Churchill Downs and was scratched. … I don’t know why.”
When it was pointed out that Zenyatta, who is unbeaten in ten career starts, was scratched from the Louisville Distaff Stakes (G2) on the Kentucky Oaks undercard at Churchill Downs because of probable off track, Jackson did not seem impressed.
“We have dry tracks out east as well,” he said.
The hype surrounding a Zenyatta-Rachel Alexandra showdown is reminiscent of last year’s back-and-forth between Jackson and IEAH Stables President Michael Iavarone as racing fans clamored for a matchup that featured 2007 Horse of the Year Curlin and 2008 dual classic winner Big Brown.
Jackson said he did not want to get caught up in that scenario again this season, praising Zenyatta’s connections—owners Jerry and Ann Moss and trainer John Shirreffs—for doing what is best for their horse, just as he is doing what he thinks is best for his.
“They have fine owners and a great trainer in Mr. Shirreffs,” he said. “You can’t criticize another owner for protecting their horse and doing what’s best for their horse.
“I don’t think we are shadowboxing, just being protective of our horse and saving her for great racing for the benefit of the fans. I’d prefer that people wouldn’t hype the potential of a race like that.”
Jackson said it is his disdain for synthetic surfaces that most likely would keep the two horses from meeting this season.
“I’m pretty much ‘anti’ all of them,” Jackson said of artificial surfaces. “I saw Curlin and how he struggled [at Santa Anita]. If it’s a dirt horse, it’s a dirt horse.
“Plastic favors turf horses. I’ve raced at Hollywood [Park], Del Mar, of course at Keeneland [Race Course] … all vary the normal handicapping potential of a good dirt horse, and Rachel is a good dirt horse.”
Jackson said future options for Rachel Alexandra include the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1), the Delaware Handicap (G2), the Haskell Invitational Stakes (G1), the Shadwell Travers Stakes (G1), and the Alabama Stakes (G1)depending on how the filly comes out of Mother Goose Stakes (G1) on Saturday at Belmont Park.
He also said he would consider a four-year-old campaign for the filly should she remain healthy and happy at the end of the season, with a possible run in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup on the dirt at Churchill Downs.
“A Breeders’ Cup is not essential this year if I am going to run that fourth year,” he said. “I don’t want to risk her.
“I’d love to be there [Churchill in 2010]. Maybe that’s where Zenyatta could meet us someday.”
Steve Bailey is deputy news editor of THOROUGHBRED TIMES
