A PLAN ALWAYS DOOMED TO FAILURE

By Graham Potter | Saturday, May 16, 2009

It was a bold plan, but it was doomed to failure from the outset.

When Rachel Alexandra romped to a 20.25 length victory in the Kentucky Oaks, she a sent shudder of relief down the spine of every racehorse owner that had a runner in the Kentucky Derby. The races are run one day apart and Rachel Alexandra’s connections had opted to miss the Run For The Roses in favour of what was little more than a track gallop against her own sex. In fact her owners had no plans to run the filly against the colts in any leg of the Triple Crown.

But that relief turned to dismay with the events that unfolded in the days that followed after the dust had settled on both of those Kentucky feature races. The sale of Rachel Alexandra to Stonestreet Stables changed everything.

For some, dismay translated into imminent disaster. Stonestreet owner, Jess Jackson transferred the Rachel Alexandra from trainer Hal Wiggins to Steve Asmussen where she was placed in the same barn that had been home to the mighty Curlin. When Jackson began contemplating a start in the Preakness for his new purchase, the connections of some of her likely rivals began running scared.

That is when the plan to keep the Kentucky Oaks winner out of the Preakness was formulated. Ahmed Zayat, owner of the Derby runner-up Pioneer Of The Nile, received a phone call from Mark Allen, co-owner of the Derby winner Mine That Bird. Allen put it to Zayat that they should both enter a second horse in the Preakness. If they did that, it would take the size of the field up to fourteen runners – the limit for the Preakness.

Horses originally nominated for Triple Crown series of races take precedence over supplementary entries in determining the final field for Triple Crown races. Rachel Alexandra was not an original nomination and she would therefore effectively be shut out of the race if Allen and Zayat put Allen’s plan into action. Adding insult to injury in that situation was the fact that the horse the Allen proposed to nominate, Indy Express, still had to win a race, having failed to do so at nine attempts.

Allen and Zayat would have been perfectly within their rights to proceed. Legally, their position was sound. Morally, they were in quicksand.

Tom Chuckas Jnr, President of the Maryland Jockey Club, had spoken to Zayat and strongly presented the Jockey Club’s point of view. Owner Marylou Whitney said she would only bring one of her runners if Rachel Alexandra was in the field. Otherwise, she would take it out to make way for the boom filly.

Little wonder then that the back-down was as swift as the backlash was severe, clearing the way for Rachel Alexandra to make the Preakness field, via a $100 000 supplementary payment. Zayat walked away from the idea. Allen issued a statement outlining his reasons for the play and admitting he’d made a wrong call.

There would have been two huge advantages for Allen if his plan had succeeded. If Rachel Alexandra was absent from the Preakness line-up, not only would Allen no longer have to worry about being beaten by the filly, but he would also be in a position to retain the services of jockey Calvin Borel, whose prowess in the saddle was an integral part of Mine That Bird’s Derby victory.

If Rachel Alexandra ran in the Preakness, Borel would be on her back. The filly was his preferred choice.

“My decision to enter Indy Express in the Preakness was strictly business,” stated Allen in his Press

Release. “After consulting with my dad and (Dr Leonard) Blach, I have decided to withdraw Indy Express to prevent any further misunderstandings. Their advice to me was just to do what’s right, because arrogance and greed isn’t right.”

So it was that the Kentucky Oaks winner Rachel Alexandra and the Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird faced off in the Preakness for a score to be settled on the track.

Borel was attempting to become the first jockey to get off a Derby winner and win another leg of the Triple Crown. Rachel Alexandra was trying to become the first filly in eighty-five years to win the Preakness. A win for Mine That Bird would keep his chance of winning the Triple Crown alive. The race had mouth-watering intrigue.

On the day, the filly that Borel had previously described as ‘awesome’ proved to be too good for Mine That Bird. The latter came away with his burgeoning reputation intact after another storming finish from behind which earned him second placing. He had some excuse after being held up for a run early in the straight, but Rachel Alexandra had controlled the race from the outset and the chances are she would have controlled events all the way to the line, whatever the run produced by her rival.

Will Rachel Alexandra go on to the Belmont - the third leg of the Triple Crown?

If she does go to the Belmont, Rachel Alexander will be chasing history again. It was only two years ago that Rags To Riches became the latest filly to win the race. The more telling statistic is that when winning the Belmont in 2007, Rags To Riches was the first filly to score in the race since Tanya won in 1905 – 102 years between drinks! (The only other filly to win the race was Ruthless in 1867).

If Steve Assmussen and Jess Jackson decide against stepping Rachel Alexandra up from the 1900m of the Preakness to the 2400m Belmont trip, does Borel get back onto Mine That Bird and can he then go on the complete the most interesting of Triple Crowns triumphs produced by a jockey?

With Mine That Bird’s defeat in the Preakness, no horse can win this year’s Triple Crown. Had Rachel Alexandra been blocked from running in the Preakness, runner-up Mine That Bird would probably have won that race and would now be preparing to try to land one of racing’s highest honours.

Sometimes there is a price to pay for doing the right thing.

The Belmont will be run on June 6.