Posts Tagged ‘haskell invitational’

PRESS RELEASE

Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra will make her 4-year-old debut in the March 13 New Orleans Ladies, assuming she continues to progress as expected, owner Jess Jackson of Stonestreet Stables confirmed Thursday. The $200,000 New Orleans Ladies is for fillies and mares at 1 1/16 miles on the main track.
 
“That is our intended goal,” Jackson said by phone Thursday evening. “I believe she’s on schedule and she’ll get the prep race before she goes on to Oaklawn. There are other tracks that have offered to have us go, but right now we’d rather stay here.”
 
Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Ark., announced earlier Thursday that the date of the Grade I Apple Blossom had been moved back to Friday, April 9, in order to give Rachel Alexandra and champion older female Zenyatta sufficient time to each get one start before meeting for the first time in what Oaklawn is billing as the “Race for the Ages.” The new date of the Apple Blossom places it 27 days after the New Orleans Ladies.
 
“We’re obviously thrilled by the news that Rachel Alexandra, already a legend based on her accomplishments last year, intends to make her 2010 debut at Fair Grounds,” said Fair Grounds Vice President and General Manager Eric Halstrom. “We are already working to make sure March 13 will be a special day befitting of racing royalty.”
 
Jackson expressed his hope that the New Orleans Ladies would attract a solid field of competitors despite the imposing proposition for the others of having to face one of the top female racehorses in history.
 
“I’d really like to have more than just nominal competition in the race,” Jackson said. “Assuming it’s a fair race I don’t expect Rachel to have any trouble but at the same time, regardless of whether they’re superstars or not, it embellishes the track’s reputation and Rachel’s reputation to have the best possible competition.”
 
Record rainfall in December and more high levels of precipitation in January repeatedly forced two-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Steve Asmussen to adjust Rachel Alexandra’s schedule. More recently, however, she has posted official workouts on consecutive weekends, including a half-mile breeze Saturday in :50 3/5.
 
“It’s not anyone’s fault, but with the rain and the track conditions it’s been a serious setback to Rachel’s routine,” Jackson said. “When you’re training a horse it’s an animal that needs to have a regular routine and Steve’s been hard-pressed to keep her going given the weather. When we do get her to the track it’s well maintained, but she’s behind schedule and that means we’re compressed to try to get everything done and keep her on schedule leading up to works and preparing her for a major competition at Oaklawn.”
 
Fair Grounds officials added the New Orleans Ladies to the stakes schedule last fall in hopes that a scenario such as this would play out. Now it appears Fair Grounds will get its wish—to showcase the champion filly in front of New Orleans’ faithful race fans.
 
“It’s always fun to visit New Orleans, one of the top cities in the United States,” Jackson said. “My wife loves it. You have great food. The rebound has been phenomenal as far as sports are concerned so maybe that will help lead to a full recovery.”
 
Rachel Alexandra established herself as one of the all-time great fillies last year with historic wins in the Grade I Kentucky Oaks and Grade I Preakness Stakes, as well as six other stakes races, including the Grade II Fair Grounds Oaks. She defeated older males twice, in the Grade I Haskell Invitational and the Grade I Woodward.

While Ray is traveling back from Osaka (hopefully we won’t have to hear too much about jet lag once he returns to the United States), he wanted to reignite the debate over Horse of the Year. The following piece was submitted by Jeff Shapes, a marketing communications consultant, freelance writer and horse racing enthusiast, not necessarily in that order.

By Jeff Shapes
There’s one overriding reason Zenyatta should win the Eclipse Award as Horse of the Year over Rachel Alexandra, and it has nothing to do with their comparative records on the racetrack. No, Zenyatta has earned the honor because her electrifying performance in the Breeders’ Cup Classic flew in the face of the general negative assessment of her chances to win the event, while at the same time capping off a brilliant, undefeated career that put her into the discussion of who is history’s greatest female race horse. Now, if that doesn’t make her Horse of the Year, they might as well retire the award.
 
Yes there had been speculation that if Zenyatta ran in the Classic and won, there’d be a Horse of the Year debate. But in their heart of hearts, not to mention their racing opinions, those speculators, whether in public or not, didn’t believe Zenyatta had what it took to beat the “big” boys in the big race. Indeed, there were some who said she shouldn’t even run in the Classic, since there wasn’t really anything to gain. Better to protect her legacy as an undefeated champion with another romp in the Ladies’ Classic, than to go out with a loss chasing an unattainable goal.
 
Need some proof of how little regard the experts had for Zenyatta in the run up to the Classic? Despite being tabbed the pre-race wagering favorite, not one of the 11 media members whose selections were published by USA Today in its Breeders’ Cup preview picked Zenyatta to win. And east coast bias wasn’t in play. Joining writers from the New York Daily News, New York Post, Lexington Herald-Leader and Albany Times-Union in giving Zenyatta the thumbs down were the national correspondent of the Daily Racing Form, horse racing writers from the Associated Press and USA Today, an editor of the Thoroughbred Times, an on-air personality from HRTV and racing writers from the Los Angeles Daily News and San Diego Union-Tribune, in whose backyard Zenyatta ran all except one of her career races.
 
Want to bring in some more exulted names? Joe Drape of the New York Times did not pick Zenyatta, and neither did Steven Crist of the Daily Racing Form. The Washington Post’s Andy Beyer, inventor of the Beyer Speed Figure, the acknowledged statistical method for comparing racetrack performances under different race conditions? He labeled Zenyatta a throw out.

Luckily, Zenyatta’s connections had much greater faith in their magnificent mare than the experts.  Questioned for not shipping Zenyatta to a traditional dirt track to take on Rachel Alexandra head-to-head, team Zenyatta stuck to their guns of getting her ready for the Breeders’ Cup the best way they thought how. If that meant staying in Southern California and competing exclusively on synthetic surfaces, well that’s how it would be done. And though they never stated it, the guess here is that winning the Classic as a finishing touch on a Hall of Fame career, not to mention the historical achievement such a win would represent, was probably the long-range goal of those who guided Zenyatta’s career.
 
Of course, Rachel Alexandra’s connections, like most others in the racing world, assumed their filly had a stranglehold on Horse of the Year when she concluded her 2009 season with a win in the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga in early September. It was Rachel’s eighth victory in eight races, accomplished at seven racetracks in six states, with three coming over male competitors. Her campaign encompassed eye popping performances in such keystone events as the Kentucky Oaks, Preakness Stakes, Mother Goose Stakes, Haskell Invitational and the aforementioned Woodward, and was highlighted by either record breaking victory margins or historical firsts just about every time she left the starting gate.
 
With such a resumé, who could blame Jess Jackson for putting Rachel away for the winter, especially since she probably needed a rest after an exhausting year (visible in the Woodward). But, had the Breeders’ Cup Classic not been held on a synthetic surface, there’s little doubt Rachel would have continued her season and run at least one more race to conclude a campaign for the ages. After all, it was Jackson himself who announced his intention to run Rachel in next year’s Breeders’ Cup at Churchill Downs at the same time he said he would not run her this year on Santa Anita’s Pro-Ride because of his distaste for synthetic surfaces (or plastic as he labeled them).
 
Can we know how a Zenyatta-Rachel Alexandra showdown in the Breeders’ Cup Classic would have played out? Is there a certainty that had Rachel been entered in the race, Team Zenyatta would have taken her on? Would Rachel have performed as poorly on the synthetics as last year’s Horse of the Year, Curlin, and as other “dirt” horses seem to? These questions can never be answered. But what is fact is that Zenyatta showed up on Championship Saturday and won the most important North American race that’s open to all Thoroughbreds regardless of age or sex. This was no Raven’s Pass swooping in and leaving nothing behind but a few footprints.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick
How good is Rachel Alexandra? There are several ways to marvel at her extraordinary ability. To the naked eye, she is an impressive combination of grace and power that is seldom seem, her long, smooth strides simply too much for her overmatched competitors to keep up with.

To followers of speed figures, she is a monster. Her Beyer Speed Figure from Sunday’s Haskell Invitational was 116, a huge number. I would think her Ragozin and Thorograph numbers will also reflect superiority over her contemporaries.

What she has done in racking up seven consecutive victories in 2009 by Aug. 2 is equally amazing. In some ways, this daughter of Medaglia d’Oro is a throwback to yesteryear, when horses weren’t treated with kid gloves. In compiling this formidable record, Rachel Alexandra has won six American Graded Stakes—twice as many as any other horse in the country so far this year—and four of the graded races were Grade 1 events (Kentucky Oaks, Preakness, Mother Goose, and Haskell Invitational). Two of them, as any racing fan knows, were outside of her division against colts.

Let’s put those numbers in perspective. There will be something like 50,000 races run this year in the U.S., about 2,600 of them stakes races, or about 5% of all races. Of the 2,600 stakes, only about 500 are graded (1%), and of those 500, there are just 115 Grade 1. So, one-fifth of 1% of all U.S. races have Grade 1 status.

Taken a bit farther, for those 50,000 races there are about 410,000 horses in the starting gate. No more than 115 of those 410,000 starters will be able to claim a Grade 1 victory, or about three horses from every 10,000 starters (three-hundredths of 1%).

What are the odds of one of those horses winning four Grade 1 races in the first eight months of the year? Astronomical!

So, Rachel Alexandra is not quite a one in a million superstar Thoroughbred, but she’s pretty darned close.

THESE NUMBERS AND PERCENTAGES  merely serve to illustrate how difficult it is for a Thoroughbred to become a graded stakes winner. The chances of breeding, buying, selling or training one can be equally challenging.

Of course, there is strength in numbers to improve your chances of being associated with a graded stakes winner, whether you are a sire, owner, breeder, trainer, consignor or sales company. But big numbers do not guarantee success.

We’ll look this week at the leading sires of 2009 American Graded Stakes winners so far this year. Three stallions—A.P. Indy, Giant’s Causeway and Unbridled’s Song—each have sired five AGS winners. But Giant’s Causeway has by far had the most starters—265 at this writing—so his percentage of AGS winners to year starters is just 1.9%. A.P. Indy with 126 starters, has sired 4.0% AGS winners, and Unbridled’s Song with 162 starters, has sired 3.1% AGS winners. (Note: the number of starters is worldwide.)

A.P. Indy stood for $250,000 this year. A success rate of 4.0% AGS winners means 1 in 25 runners wins an AGS, so it has taken on average $6,250,000 in stud fees (25 X $250,000) to produce each graded stakes winner among his runners. (Not all foals get to the races, so the number to produce an AGS would be even higher considering all foals.)

Giant’s Causeway and Unbridled’s Song stood for $125,000 each, and their average stud fee price per graded stakes winner using that same formula is $6,579,000 for Giant’s Causeway and $4,032,000 for Unbridled’s Song.

It’s the next group of three sires, Mizzen Mast, Candy Ride and Tapit, with four AGS winners each, where the value is greater.  Mizzen Mast has had 126 starters and has a AGS winner percentage of 3.2%; Candy Ride has had 80 starters for a 5.0% AGS strike rate; Tapit has had 84 starters for 4.8%.

Candy Ride, who was recently moved from Hill ‘n’ Dale to Lane’s End, offered the greatest value when considering his $12,500 stud fee. His average stud fee cost per AGS winner was only $250,000. Of course, there is little question that Candy Ride’s fee will be going up in 2010, though no announcement has yet been made.

Of the other two sires with four AGS winners, Mizzen Mast with a $17,500 fee produced each 2009 AGS winner at an average stud fee cost of $547,000; Tapit, with a fee of $35,000 produced each 2009 AGS winner at an average stud fee cost of $729,000—still a bargain compared with the higher-priced stallions.

Rachel Alexandra absolutely destroyed her  male opposition in Sunday’s $1,250,000 Haskell Invitational Handicap at Monmouth Park, coming from just off the pace of Munnings, taking command on the turn for home, and romping home to a six-length victory for Calvin Borel, who is now a perfect-eight for eight on the Medaglia d’Oro filly now carrying the colors of Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables and trained by Steve Asmussen.

Rachel Alexandra paid $3 to win as the 1-2 favorite.

As expected, Munnings, coming off that impressive win sprinting in the Tom Fool, went right to the front under John Velazquez and set fractions of :22 4/5 for the opening quarter mile, :46 2/5 for the half-mile and 1:09 4/5 for six furlongs. Borel had Rachel Alexandra just off his right hip, and Summer Bird was close behind in third, along the rail. Papa Clem raced close up in fourth.

On the turn, however, Borel let Rachel Alexandra extend her stride and she was quickly in front. When the field hit the top of the stretch, it was really only a matter of how big her margin of victory would be. She galloped to the wire in yet another incredible performance that may be the equal of her 20 1/4 Kentucky Oaks victory (her last start for trainer Hal Wiggins and breeder Dolphus Morrison, after which she was purchased by Jackson and Harold McCormick) or her 19 1/4-length victory last time out in the Mother Goose. This was her second victory over colts and geldings, following her one-length Preakness win over Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

Jess Jackson said he didn’t know where Rachel Alexandra would go next either, saying, “We’ll see how she comes out. Her next race will be decided by us when she tells us.” Jackson did say the Breeders’ Cup at Oak Tree on a synthetic track is not an option, though he does want to face the unbeaten, reigning filly and mare champ Zenyatta. “We’re not going to the Breeders’ Cup,” Jackson insisted. “I’ve said that from the beginning and I mean it. I’d like it on a neutral course and I don’t like synthetic tracks.”

While there is plenty of racing remaining in 2009, Rachel Alexandra has clearly becoming the pro-tem leader in the race for Horse of the  Year. She has won all seven of her starts this year–four of them Grade 1 and two Grade 2–and is now 10 for 13 lifetime.

The Haskell topped a big weekend for Asmussen and Jackson. On Saturday, Asmussen saddled Soul Warrior to an upset victory over Mine That Bird in the West Virginia Derby at Mountaineer Park and took the Jim Dandy at Saratoga with Jackson and Gulf Coast Farm’s Kensai. Kensai looks to be the favorite for the Travers Stakes at Saratoga later this month–unless Jackson and Asmussen opt to run Rachel Alexandra. That seems unlikely, however, since the filly may be better at 1 1/8 miles and the Travers is run over 1 1/4 miles, longer than she’s ever been.

Rachel Alexandra, produced from the Roar filly Lotta Kim, became the second filly to win the Haskell, joining 1995 winner Serena’s Song.

Copyright © 2009, The Paulick Report

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By Ray Paulick

Big Brown got it done in Sunday’s $1-million Haskell Stakes at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, but it wasn’t easy, as the Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner was in an all-out drive to get past long shot pacesetter Coal Play in the final 70 yards of the 1 1/8-mile race to win by 1 3/4 lengths.