THE ASPIRING HORSEPLAYER

Rachel Alexandra - Photo by Jim McCue of the Maryland Jockey Club

Older males-the “final frontier.”  These are the voyages of the filly Rachel Alexandra.  Her 3-year-mission thus far being to explore new worlds, to seek out new challenges and competition; to boldly go where no filly has gone before.   

“Captain’s Log, Star Date 9/5/09.  I, Captain Jess J. Kirk of the starship Rachel Alexandra, after lengthy consultation with the crew, have decided to set course for the uncharted Woodward nebula.”

With word coming yesterday that Rachel Alexandra would skip the Travers and instead point the Woodward Stakes on September 5, the stage is set for the next chapter in her historic campaign to be written.  She’s already throttled everything the 3-year-old filly division could throw at her.  She’s toyed with the 3-year-old boys in becoming the first filly in 85 years to win the Preakness Stakes, and the 2nd filly in 42 years to prevail in the Haskell Invitational.  The only worlds left for her to conquer are that of the older runners of both her own division and that of the males she’s been humiliating in recent efforts.

By skipping older fillies and mares and proceeding straight to older males, one might say that she’s jumped right over the double-dog-dare (the Travers), right past the triple-dare (facing older fillies and mares), and thrown down the gauntlet that is the dreaded triple-dog-dare.  Here she is fellas, come and catch her if you can.

The decision also sets the stage for her stablemate, the oft-overlooked Kensei, to run in the Travers this weekend against the likes of Summer Bird, Mine That Bird, and Quality Road. 

Here’s the funny thing…depending on who Rachel faces in the Woodward, skipping the Travers might actually wind up being an easier path to follow.  Usually that’s not the case – as all things being equal older horses tend to be tougher than younger ones, but this year I’m not sure that old axiom holds true. 

We started the Triple Crown season assuming we had a distinctly deep crop of 3-year-olds, and we were only focusing on the colts at first.  At times we wondered if the depth of the crop might rival that we saw in 2007.  Then, as is sadly the case in many years, injuries began to rob us of our most gifted runners.  The Pamplemousse, Quality Road, and finally even likely favorite I Want Revenge on Derby morning of all days, all succumbed to nagging injuries and wound up missing the party.

Now we’ve got Quality Road back, and if his record setting effort at Saratoga in the Amsterdam at the beginning of the month was any indication, he’s in sharp form.  Even more miraculously, we’ve had other runners such as Mine That Bird, Summer Bird, and now Kensei step up to the plate and prove that we did indeed have a deep and talented crop this year.  Then you look at the fillies.  While obviously none have quite stacked up to Rachel’s level of greatness, just when you think you’ve got the division all figured out along comes a horse like Careless Jewel, who looks like she could take colts to task if she wanted to as well.  And note, we haven’t even mentioned the overseas sensations that are Sariska and Sea of Stars.

But what of our older male division?  Well, truth be told, it’s arguably at it’s lowest point ever.  Most of the older males worth their salt are already pointing towards the Breeders’ Cup this fall.  Synthetic surfaces continue to remain the one frontier that “Captain Jess J. Kirk” does not seem willing to boldly return to and attempt to conquer…at least for now.

Instead, Jackson is literally re-writing the history books as he goes while Rachel’s triumphant victory parade marches through the legendary shrines of horse racing that dot the East Coast and Mid Atlantic Regions.  Pimlico, Belmont, and Monmouth have already fallen to Alexandra the Great  just the way cities of the ancient world fell to a conqueror of similar name many centuries before. 

Will Saratoga be the next great bastion of horse racing fame to compound “before thy most assured overthrow?“

“What say you, Woodward competitors? Will you yield, and this avoid, or guilty in defense be thus destroyed?”

Ah yes, we’re back to quoting Shakespeare here at the Aspiring Horseplayer, which if you recall from my Curlin-obsessed period (I being one who actually divides his life into two segments;  BC for “before Curlin” and PC for “post Curlin”), tends to happen when we’re on the cusp of a momentous achievement.

The good news, at least for Rachel’s would-be rivals, is that those who have faced the “Wrath of Rachel” and survived to tell the tale have quite often returned in triumphant fashion.  It’s like their resolve has been all the more steeled by staring straight into the eyes of the mythical beast and giving it their all.  While she tends to blow away fields by ridiculous open lengths, these runners do not hang their heads for long. Take the Points, Flashing, Gabby’s Golden Gal – all returned to the winner’s circle following dismal performances against the great one. 

Lining up to meet Rachel and attempt to deny her latest shot at history will likely be Bullsbay and Macho Again.  Fine horses in their own right, but not quite the sizzling matchup we might have had with the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont winners going up against a fresh new challenger like Quality Road.  True, there’s history on the line by attempting to become the first filly champion of the Woodward, but the Travers would’ve offered just as much historical precedence.  Remember, it’s not been since the days of the Austro-Hungarian empire that a filly has been crowned Travers champion (1915).

No matter, the racing world seems to be pulling out all the stops, including a purse boost to the Woodward in order to help attract as competitive a field as possible.  Being as that we’re nearing the one year anniversary of the NTRA marketing summit (click that link for a retrospective look courtesy of the Paulick Report and our fearless TBA leader, Handride) last year where myself and other fans pleaded with the powers that be to do a better job of telling a compelling, continuous story from the Triple Crown to the Breeders’ Cup – I sincerely hope something is being worked out to ensure that both the Travers and the Woodward will be delivered to as wide a viewing audience as possible.

I know I sound like a broken record here, but given the level of “star power” that Rachel has (our Facebook fanclub group alone numbering in the thousands – and keep in mind that the overall number of people revealed in Facebook searches who have even listed “horse racing” as an interest is significantly lower than that total, meaning she exceeds the fanship of all racing fans on that social networking application), it seems to be a horrible mistake that she’s only been nationally broadcast once so far this year in the Preakness. I don’t care what the excuses are - and no doubt some are valid – it’s still inexcusable.

I can understand not covering Zenyatta much this year as she’s progressed through the various “San-Who-Gives-A-Rats?” Stakes in California, but the job we’re doing collectively at promoting our most interesting draw is simply mind bogglingly bad.  The Preakness with Rachel blew television viewership levels of recent memory completely out of the water.  The single day of wagering helped turn an otherwise disastrous Pimlico meet amidst the “Great Economic Recession” into an improvement over the previous year.  You’d think someone, somewhere, might want to try and keep that excitement going?

Is it really that hard to promote something so….promotable?  The Geico cavemen sure make it look easy.

“Please, if you don’t mind, let Rachel be herself!  So she can shine with her own mind, let her be herself!” (God I love those commercials!!!!)

But then again, as the Paulick Report article I linked to several paragraphs above has to point out, the perception of bloggers like us who call for such things is that we’re peons who spend all day in grandma’s basement, grinding axes against perceived threats out in the ether of the “real world” – which evidently is a frighteningly complex place that our fragile minds are  ill-equipped to either confront or understand.  Yes, as over-the-top as that description sounds, I suspect that is what comes to mind whenever I utter the dreaded “b-word” to folks (“blogger”), but I digress.

Back to the matter at hand…considering that we’re already missing a matchup of infinite significance that the entire world wants to see (Zenyatta and Rachel) in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita this fall, isn’t just a bit disappointing that we don’t get the dream matchup that would’ve been possible in the Travers?  Was it really the wise thing to do to jump right past the double-dog-dare and the triple-dare and move on to older males?  I suppose we could armchair general this thing to death, but my hunch tells me that the race fans wanted to see was Rachel versus Quality Road more so than Rachel versus Bullsbay. 

Don’t get me wrong, as many know I’ve got a great deal of admiration for Bullsbay since he’s a Tiznow and trained by one of the absolute best their is in Graham Motion, but he’s not the horse you hear people whispering about in connection with Rachel. 

For my money, the Travers was setting up to be the race of the year, and we’ve already been jipped out of one race that is intended  be the race of the year.  I know I’m normally walking in lock-step with Jess on the decisions he makes, but in this case I find myself in mild disagreement.  Of course, the whole situation could be rendered academic if either of the “Birds” finds a way to prevail in the Travers, since Rachel has already defeated them.  If Quality Road wins, however, then we’ll have a small dose of controversy on our hands as folks begin whispering for a matchup between he and Rachel in addition to the ubiquitous calls for the Rachel versus Zenyatta matchup. 

You know what I always say about such things:  NEVER wind up in a two front war.  That rule being only superceded by it’s sister rule: Never get involved in a land war in Asia. 

For Rachel’s connections, I suspect the situation is a bit like a game of “whack-a-mole.” Every time you think she’s knocked out the competition definitively, someone else surfaces purportedly ready for a shot at the title.  Who knows, in time that might include her stablemate, Kensei? It ain’t easy being top dog, that’s for sure, no matter how deceptively so Rachel makes it seem. 

In an attempt to see if my suspicions about what racing fans wanted to see are correct, I’ve added a poll below.  Sound off and let me know what you think. Was it right to point to the Woodward and take on older males, or should Jess and company have opted for the Travers instead?