LITTLE ROCK — Asked to describe Rachel Alexandra’s distinctive white facial markings - a curved star and a separate triangular stripe - her former trainer, Hal Wiggins, said it appeared somebody had wiped their hand across the face of the 3-year-old bay filly.
In this case, it appears to have been the hand of greatness.
Rachel Alexandra delivered a campaign for the ages by winning all eight starts, including three over males.
Stabled early this year at Oaklawn Park in Hot Springs, Rachel Alexandra scored record-setting victories in the track’s $50,000 Martha Washington Stakes on Feb. 15 (8 lengths) and the $250,000 Grade II Fantasy Stakes on April 5 (8 3 /4 lengths).
Rachel Alexandra then won the $500,000 Grade I Kentucky Oaks on May 1 at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., by a record 20 1 /4 lengths.
Rachel Alexandra was expected to continue racing against fillies, but the script unexpectedly changed five days after the Kentucky Oaks when Dolphus Morrison, the filly’s breeder and co-owner, sold her for a reported $10 million to a partnership headed by wine mogul Jess Jackson.
Jackson and trainer Steve Asmussen mapped out a daring campaign for Rachel Alexandra, who subsequently beat males in the Preakness, the second leg of racing’s Triple Crown, on May 16 at Pimlico in Baltimore, the $1 million Grade I Haskell Invitational on Aug. 2 at Monmouth Park in New Jersey and, in her final start of the year, the $500,000 Grade I Woodward Stakes on Sept. 5 at Saratoga in upstate New York.
Rachel Alexandra became the first filly since Nellie Morse in 1924 to win the Preakness.
Rachel Alexandra, now training at Fair Grounds in New Orleans, will be named the country’s champion 3-year-old filly and is locked in a hotly debated battle with unbeaten Zenyatta for Horse of the Year.
Eclipse Awards will be announced Jan. 18.
Sports, Pages 33 on 12/27/2009