Rachel’s Return at the Spa: Only Six Days Away!

T-minus six days and counting.

Rachel Alexandra completed her preparations for Sunday’s Grade 1 Personal Ensign by breezing four furlongs on the Oklahoma Training Track in 48.89 Monday morning. Now the waiting game begins for her connections and many fans.

The Personal Ensign will give Rachel Alexandra the opportunity to make more history at Saratoga Race Course, the site of her exhilarating, unprecedented victory over older males in last year’s Grade 1 Woodward on Labor Day weekend.

After waiting nearly a year, what’s another six days?

Following her workout, trainer Steve Asmussen remarked on the outpouring of support Rachel Alexandra has received throughout her career.

“I like and have been impressed by the fans that she has and how much they like her” said Asmussen. “I hope that continues.”

Let’s grant Asmussen his wish by filling up Saratoga Race Course with Rabid Rachel Rooters this Sunday!

Rachel: A year later

By Jenny Kellner

It is a morning like any other morning on the backstretch at Saratoga Race Course. Seagulls circle overhead, silhouetted against the slowly brightening sky; workers cruise by on their bicycles, and from inside the barns you can hear the stomping and rustling of the racehorses.

Despite the early hour, there are a few people clustered on the knoll near trainer Steve Asmussen’s barn, their gaze focused on the light spilling from stall No. 1. There’s no toy New York license plate bearing her name over the door anymore, but everyone knows who’s inside: Rachel Alexandra.

Last September, the Spa’s venerable grandstand was shaking to the roar of more than 30,000 fans as Rachel ran her 2009 record to a perfect 8-for-8 in the Woodward, becoming the first filly to ever win the prestigious race.

The victory capped probably the most ambitious campaign ever by a 3-year-old filly, one that encompassed a 20-length win in the Kentucky Oaks, two wins over 3-year-old colts in the Preakness and Haskell; a record-setting triumph in the Belmont Park’s Mother Goose, and her historic win over older males in the Woodward, her final start of the year.

A year older, a year stronger, a year bigger, Rachel is back. Her win in the Lady’s Secret signaled her readiness for the rest of her 2010 campaign, one which begins in earnest on August 29 with the 1 ¼ mile Personal Ensign, her first Grade 1 race of the year and first at the distance.

In the meantime, the preparations continue, so much the same as last year it seems the Rachel-less months in between never were. Two Monday works over the Oklahoma Training Track, the rail lined with Rachel fans; a third over the main track. Just like last year.

It’s still very early. The Breakfast at Saratoga crowds are not here yet, and Mary Ryan has not taken up her microphone to pick out the stars for the fans.

“But all you have to do is look for the fastest horse out there,” says trainer Neil Howard, sitting atop his pony, as Rachel trots by.

Still, jockey Shaun Bridgmohan’s red cap and flak jacket makes it doubly easy to spot her flying low along the rail as she sped to the wire, then galloping in an impressive display of grace and power. She’s more relaxed in the middle of her works than she ever was as a 3-year-old, and seemingly stronger at the end.

She’s ready.

RACHEL RESTS

Somehow, she looks pensive. Those with an overactive imagination might think she was pondering her future, perhaps. Alexander the Great, it was said, sat down and wept when there were no more worlds to conquer. But Rachel Alexandra the Great has the world at her feet! Along the bottom of the photo you can make out the pink carnations that adorned her Woodward winner's blanket. And check out the new desktop wallpaper from the Woodward on this site – a reminder of how the grandstand was literally shaking from start to finish -- and beyond.

A PRISTINE MORNING FOR RACHEL'S FINAL WOODWARD WORK

By Ashley Herriman

Monday morning dawned cool and crisp as Rachel Alexandra took to the track for her final workout prior to Saturday’s Woodward under a pink-streaked sky.

“It feels great to get that breeze in today under such nice circumstances – cool morning, the racetrack is in great shape,” said trainer Steve Asmussen after the half-mile work. “She looked very happy…[and if] she’s happy, we’re happy.”

The fine weather added even more to the anticipation surrounding the leggy bay filly’s latest attempt to make history and become the first of her sex to win the Woodward. Watching Rachel this morning, it was hard not to think you were already bearing witness to something very special.

Asmussen said earlier this week that he thought Rachel probably considered the phalanx of photographers recording her every move and the throng of reporters furiously scribbling every word uttered by her connections “normal.” He meant that for humans and animals alike, one’s reality becomes the norm and the constant attention is part of Rachel’s reality.

One look at the filly floating over the track this morning dispelled any notion of normalcy, especially when she came back looking as though she’d hardly exerted herself. She’s abnormal in the best of ways, and her admirers around the world will be watching on Saturday, hoping to see her defy convention once again.

RACHEL ATTEMPTS TO MAKE HISTORY AGAIN

By Jenny Kellner

Monday morning, after Rachel Alexandra worked an effortless six furlongs in 1:11.84, trainer Steve Asmussen and Jess Jackson’s wife, Barbara Banke, made the expected announcement: Rachel is going to try and become the first female ever to win the Grade 1 Woodward here on September 5.

There were pros and cons for each of the races at Saratoga under consideration for Rachel, from last Saturday’s Grade 1 Alabama against 3-year-old fillies to the Shadwell Travers here Saturday against colts and the Personal Ensign vs. older fillies the following day.

The Alabama is a hugely prestigious race, but Rachel had already gone through her divisional rivals with ridiculous ease.

The Travers has not been won by a filly since 1915, but she had already beaten 3-year-old colts twice, in the Preakness (Mine That Bird) and the Haskell Invitational (Summer Bird), and as Asmussen said, there’s no way she is going to be the champion 3-year-old colt.

The Personal Ensign represented a new challenge -- older fillies and mares – but the real deal is not meeting the older females here, but possibly facing Zenyatta at Belmont Park in the $1 million Beldame.

Moreover, those three races are all at 1¼ miles, and considering how Mine That Bird was running at Rachel Alexandra at the end of 1 3/16^th miles in the Preakness, perhaps nine furlongs is her optimal distance.

But the best thing is the next two Saturdays at Saratoga are going to be spectacular!

NORTH, MISS TESCHMACHER

By Jenny Kellner

At 6:20 a.m., with the Belmont Park backstretch roosters screeching madly, Rachel Alexandra walks up the ramp onto the Sallee horse van and is promptly shuttled north to Saratoga Springs. Among other things, her Saratoga trunk was packed with her own personal stall gate, and riding along with her on the 200-mile journey were the stable pony, assistant trainer Scott Blasi and his 13-year-old son, Blaine.
A little more than three hours pass, and Blasi reports by cell phone that Rachel has come out of her record-setting victory in the Mother Goose in fine fashion and is safely ensconced in her summer residence, which happens to be Curlin's former stall, right next to Blasi's office in trainer Steve Asmussen's barn near the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course.
"The weather is beautiful, nice and cool and sunny," says Blasi. "She's about to have her lunch and then she's going to take a nap. And, she's right next to me, which is great."
Blasi, like most everyone else, gets kind of dreamy-eyed when he talks about Rachel. He calls her powerful and feminine; professional and elegant; competitive and confident.
"She struts when she walks," he says, "kinda like a supermodel."
More importantly, she runs like a champion, and while Asmussen declines to speculate, who can resist dreaming about Saratoga and a Shadwell Travers matching the Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird, Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird, and Rachel Alexandra? Or how about a Shadwell Travers featuring Mine That Bird and Summer Bird on Aug 29 and the very next day, having the Personal Ensign be the first meeting between Rachel and her West coast counterpart, the undefeated Zenyatta?
Can't hardly wait!

EVERYBODY LOVES RACHEL

By Jenny Kellner

Cathy, the stable cat at Steve Amussen's barn at Belmont Park, here models the pink bracelet that will be given out FREE tomorrow in support of owner Jess Jackson’s decision to donate a percentage of Rachel Alexandra's future earnings to the Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure” for breast cancer.