肯塔基橡樹大賽冠軍 Rachel Alexandra 出售予 Curlin 之馬主
Rachel Alexandra, the 3-year-old super filly who ran past the Kentucky Oaks field Friday at Churchill Downs, has been purchased by a partnership led by Jess Jackson, who campaigned Curlin, the two-time Horse of the Year. Jackson’s purchase has added a dose of excitement to this year’s Triple Crown because he is considering running her in the Preakness Stakes.
Jackson, the founder of Kendall-Jackson wines, is in Louisville, Ky., and said he would watch Rachel Alexandra work out Thursday morning and decide if he would send her against the boys on May 16. “The ink is not even dry yet,” Jackson said by telephone Wednesday night. “I don’t have to tell anyone she’s a great racehorse. I don’t even have a trainer or jockey yet.”
The 79-year-old Jackson hinted that he was perhaps more likely to wait a month for the mile-and-a-half Belmont Stakes.
“It fits her history, and I’ve always appreciated how fans in New York are so appreciative of great racing,” said Jackson, who in 2007 watched as Curlin was run down by the filly Rags to Riches in one of the greatest stretch drives in Triple Crown history.
Jackson bought Rachel Alexandra in a partnership with Harold T. McCormick of Birmingham, Ala., for between $3 million and $4 million.
Jackson, who appeared before a Congressional hearing on the abuses of the American thoroughbred industry, has become a leading voice in the reform movement. He has rebelled against unsavory sales practices in the horse-trading world, filing and eventually winning a settlement after claiming he had been the victim of unfair practices.
Jackson also acknowledged that Curlin had been trained on steroids by his trainer Steve Asmussen. Now that practice is illegal, and he has kept a majority of his horses with Asmussen, who is likely to take over the conditioning of Rachel Alexandra.
Rachel Alexandra won the Kentucky Oaks and became the first Grade I winner for the trainer Hal Wiggins, who has 14 horses in his stable. She won the Oaks by 20 1/4 lengths, believed to be a record, and in near-stakes-record time.
Jackson said part of his motive to buy the filly was to set an example for future American breeders.
Curlin, winner of 11 of 16 races in two consecutive campaigns — including the 2008 Dubai World Cup, the 2007 Preakness and the 2007 Breeders’ Cup Classic — is known as an “iron horse” for never missing a race or a workout and retiring in perfect form and health. Rachel Alexandra has many of the same traits.
“We are tremendously excited by the prospect of one day seeing the offspring of Curlin and Rachel Alexandra,” Jackson said. “I want to breed a super horse. Rachel Alexandra is one of the best horses in racing today. She is fast, strong and durable — the traits we should all be breeding into all future generations of racehorses.”
Rachel Alexandra has won five straight races. In addition to the Kentucky Oaks win, her major victories include the Golden Rod Stakes (2008), Martha Washington Stakes (2009), Fair Grounds Oaks (2009) and Fantasy Stakes (2009).
Foaled in 2006, Rachel Alexandra was out of Lotta Kim, a daughter of the Claiborne Farm multiple stakes winner Roar. Rachel Alexandra was sired by Medaglia d’Oro, a multiple Grade I winner who retired with career earnings of more than $5.7 million.
Her previous owners, Dolphus Morrison and Mike Lauffer, said they were not interested in running Rachel Alexandra against the boys. Jackson said he was considering their wishes. Still, Jackson’s purchase sets up an uncomfortable situation for jockey Calvin Borel, who rode the 50-1 long shot Mine That Bird to a Derby victory and also won the Oaks on Rachel Alexandra.
After the Derby, he said he would ride the filly if given a choice between the two.
“I’d ride her,” he said. “I think she’s the best horse in the country right now.”
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