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Rachel rules the roost in Mother Goose
"We don't know where her bottom is. She has beauty combined with speed, so fast. I think she's the best three-year-old right now. She just broke a track record and she wasn't even asked." Sent off the prohibitive 1-9 favorite, Rachel Alexandra paid $2.10. Place and show wagering were canceled, as were the exacta and trifecta. Malibu Prayer was easily second best, finishing 12 1/4 lengths in front of Flashing to add a Grade 1 second to her lifetime record in her stakes debut. "(Trainer) Steve (Asmussen) told me 'Ride your race. You know her as good as me and I think she's a kind of a grinder,' and I said 'Yes sir, that's what she is," Borel said. "I think she's just a wonderful animal, she grinds fast, you don't have to be in front, you know, you can take her back. "She's a racehorse, this is a racehorse. Believe me, she's not normal; I'm telling you, she's unbelievable. I nudged (her) on the turn for home around the quarter-pole but that was it. To make sure she'd get something out of it and do something for me. She set a new track record; believe me, she's not normal. I'm telling you, she's unbelievable." Rachel Alexandra has now won nine races, seven of those in succession, and pushed her earnings to $1,798,354 to go along with her 12-9-2-0 career line. Her only off-the-board run came in her career debut at Churchill Downs in 2008, but she immediately followed that up with a 1 1/4-length maiden special weight score under the Twin Spires. Second in the Debutante S. (G3) in her black-type bow, the bay lass next up tried Keeneland's Polytrack and recorded a three-length allowance victory. She returned to Churchill to finish out her juvenile campaign, recording a second in the Pocahontas S. (G3) and beginning her current win streak with a 4 3/4-length score in the Golden Rod S. (G2). That latter race appeared to be a turning point for the filly. She made her three-year-old debut in the Martha Washington S. at Oaklawn Park, running clear by eight lengths on the wire, and continued on to school her rivals in the Fair Grounds Oaks (G2) and Fantasy S. (G2). Rachel Alexandra was a standout in the Kentucky Oaks (G1), taking over in the stretch and drawing off to a record 20 1/4-length win in that prestigious event, which would turn out to be her last start under the expert tutelage of trainer Hal Wiggins. Following her win in the Oaks, Rachel Alexandra was purchased by Jess Jackson's Stonestreet Stables of Curlin fame and Harold McCormick from the partnership of Michael Lauffer and breeder Dolphus Morrison, and subsequently switched from Wiggins to Asmussen's barn. Future plans for the filly also changed, as her previous connections had announced after the Oaks that Rachel Alexandra would point for the Acorn S. (G1) on the Belmont S. (G1) undercard on June 6. Instead, Jackson entered his new star against the boys in the Preakness S. (G1) two weeks later. That move resulted in Borel taking off his Kentucky Derby (G1)-winning mount Mine That Bird (Birdstone) to ride the filly. The move paid off as Rachel Alexandra held off a rallying Mine That Bird by a length to take the second jewel of the Triple Crown. Rested since that effort, she added to her growing legend while making her return in this spot. The Kentucky-bred Rachel Alexandra is the first foal out of the stakes-winning and Grade 2-placed Lotta Kim (Roar), who has also produced an unraced juvenile colt by Empire Maker named Empire Ruler. Lotta Kim is a half-sister to 2001 Pocahontas S. winner Lotta Rhythm (Rhythm), who was third in that same year's Golden Rod, as well as last year's Tejano Run S. victor High Blues (High Yield). Also included in the female family is 1991 Miss Preakness S. heroine Missy's Music (Travelling Music) and Grade 3 winner Devil Diamond (Devil's Bag).
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