Rachel Alexandra

[bdw0617]

couple of random thoughts

1. I can't possibly feel bad for a guy that gets to call the telephone teller tomorrow morning and hear the woman say "you have ten..million..dollars..and.."

2. Calvin will stay on. book it.

3. I think steve is an upgrade from hal

4. she will run in the preakness and win by 4 but will be asked to run for the first time all year.

5. How many days of training did curlin miss with injury? Refresh my memory. While Steveo is not my fvoriate trainer in the book, he's not a BAD one either by any means. you could do much worse.

[zinn21]

oliverstoned wrote:

I don't know why but the idea of JJ buying her really bothers me.

I feel exactly the same way. There's something about buying "Glory" rather than earning it that really annoys me.

[bdw0617]

in general I feel the same way. I personally don't see the thrill in spending millions of dilloars on already proven talent.

[wangkw]

Well..Japonais always dump millions to fill up their studs..value for money.

[Tiz]

"5. How many days of training did curlin miss with injury? Refresh my memory. While Steveo is not my fvoriate trainer in the book, he's not a BAD one either by any means. you could do much worse."


To say that no one could take better care of RA then Hal Wiggins is not to say there is no equal to Hal Wiggins. How Steve Asmussen improves on her performances is a question. I guess he's an improvement because more people recognize his name?

[foundationmare]

New owners apparently intend to race her lightly and book her to Curlin. Can't blame them for the obvious breeding value of RA, but it sucks that yet another phenom is retired early without the excitement of watching her develop and improve and draw neophytes....as well as anti-racers....into her circle of admirers. For me, this trend to retire the good ones from the racetrack weakens the sport and points a spotlight on all that is detrimental to horses, hence the rigors of modern racing.

The scrutiny and expectations of a Curlin/RA offspring are obvious and I suspect that they will involve breeding prospects exclusively. A few turns around a racetrack? They might not outrun the water truck but they will have stellar prospects as stud/broodmare. I believe this is detrimental to horse racing. I'd love to see more stayers like Evening Attire, whose longevity drew so many people into the sport. In my opinion, he, and others like him, give us a sentimental attachment that can only elevate the sport into the lexicon of commoners who otherwise would not know diddly about racing...or racehorses.

JMHO. I would love to see horseracing return to HORSERACING, not horse breeding.

[bdw0617]

New owners apparently intend to race her lightly and book her to Curlin. Can't blame them for the obvious breeding value of RA, but it sucks that yet another phenom is retired early without the excitement of watching her develop and improve and draw neophytes....as well as anti-racers....into her circle of admirers. For me, this trend to retire the good ones from the racetrack weakens the sport and points a spotlight on all that is detrimental to horses, hence the rigors of modern racing.

The scrutiny and expectations of a Curlin/RA offspring are obvious and I suspect that they will involve breeding prospects exclusively. A few turns around a racetrack? They might not outrun the water truck but they will have stellar prospects as stud/broodmare. I believe this is detrimental to horse racing. I'd love to see more stayers like Evening Attire, whose longevity drew so many people into the sport. In my opinion, he, and others like him, give us a sentimental attachment that can only elevate the sport into the lexicon of commoners who otherwise would not know diddly about racing...or racehorses.

JMHO. I would love to see horseracing return to HORSERACING, not horse breeding.

couple of things wrong with this IMHO.

first of all, the original breeder and the owner WAS GOING TO DO THE EXACT SAME THING. it's not lke morrison was going to race her as a 4,5 year old. he is actually a commerical breeder, literarly. Jess wants to support his stallion, morrison wants to get as much blacktype as possible and send her to AP Indy and send hte baby through the sales ring.

let's not try to make Jess jackson the archtypical villian that's out to ruin racing when he's not.

2. Morrions's "plan" was to race her in acron, probably the alabama, the gazelle and maybe if we are lucky the breeders cup distaff, however I dougbt he had the balls to send her to the poly to face big z. he'd probably go the proud spell route, but i'm speculating now. At least Jess jackson actually plans to run her in races where she can actually have to try.


Jess jackson is great for the sport of horse racing. Why? Well.. in the last 2 days the preakness has become probably more intreguing then the kentucky derby was. Like Jeff Sigal Said on HRTV, she's getting a cha

nce to race on the stage she has earned the right to race on.


The fact that he plans to retire her next year should not dampen the light on her actually being able to test her metal for once.

I cannot possibly phathom anything wrong with this purchase. Execpt maybe calvin getting off the mount, and even that is a drop in the bucket in the grand scheme of things. people around the country are talking about horse racing again. and not because horses are dying on the track.

[bdw0617]

"5. How many days of training did curlin miss with injury? Refresh my memory. While Steveo is not my fvoriate trainer in the book, he's not a BAD one either by any means. you could do much worse."


To say that no one could take better care of RA then Hal Wiggins is not to say there is no equal to Hal Wiggins. How Steve Asmussen improves on her performances is a question. I guess he's an improvement because more people recognize his name?

NO becuase in 20 years Hal got his first grade 1 win friday. I'm going to take a leep of faith and say that a man that has won an eclipse award for training is a better trainer that has had 1 grade 1 win in 20 years. doesn't mean he's not a wonderful person. Just means that steve is probably a little better at his trade.

[Tiz]

"NO becuase in 20 years Hal got his first grade 1 win friday. I'm going to take a leep of faith and say that a man that has won an eclipse award for training is a better trainer that has had 1 grade 1 win in 20 years. doesn't mean he's not a wonderful person. Just means that steve is probably a little better at his trade."

Disagree. There are thousands of trainers who have never won a Grade 1, not because they aren't good enough trainers, but because they don't live in that circle. They don't get those horses but maybe once in a lifetime, and it's usually when a regular client breeds an exceptional horse.
High profile trainers are high profile, not better, and they're high profile because that's what they aspire to. It isn't everyone's cup of tea.

[bdw0617]

"NO becuase in 20 years Hal got his first grade 1 win friday. I'm going to take a leep of faith and say that a man that has won an eclipse award for training is a better trainer that has had 1 grade 1 win in 20 years. doesn't mean he's not a wonderful person. Just means that steve is probably a little better at his trade."

Disagree. There are thousands of trainers who have never won a Grade 1, not because they aren't good enough trainers, but because they don't live in that circle. They don't get those horses but maybe once in a lifetime, and it's usually when a regular client breeds an exceptional horse.
High profile trainers are high profile, not better, and they're high profile because that's what they aspire to. It isn't everyone's cup of tea.

I underestand where youa re coming from Tiz, but I don't fully buy the whole "old money clique" arguement. This game is too compeititive to not seek out the best you can find, and new trainers come in all the time and start at the bottom and show they are good at what they do and work their way to the top. look at carla gaines and helen pitts. neither has even been training for a (relativiy) long time and both have better stats than hal.

Hal doesn't get "the live horses" becuase he hasn't proven he get the most out of the horses he has on a constant basis.

It's just the nature of the beast. everone is NOT equal and there are going to be some people better than you are at your job, you are going to be better than some people.

It's very chic to say that the guy in the back with the 5 horse barn could outshine em all if given the "right horse" and that the only reason he isn't there is beucase he doesnt' kiss so and so's ass or he doesn't smuck up to this person or so on and so forth.

I'll take it even father, I would venture to say that Calvin knew more about the horse than Hal if you want me to be honest if you study the interviews. Before the oaks hal was very aggitated that Rachael worked in 46 and change and that he didn't like horses working that fast, cavlin said it is not possible for her to work slow and that she will be fine, and hal was very aggiated that he thought she may have run her race before the oaks.

And another thing, it's also very chic to hag on the guy at the top of the standings. Steve didn't get there becuase of curlin or becuase of say, Tiz Wonderful. Steve dominates the lone star/churchill circut, is and always has been a bread and butter/5/15k claimer type trainer. you don't claim off steve. you just don't. STeve is not a one horse wonder. He came within like 2 wins of breaking the fair grounds meet record this year and that's for the most part, a meat and potatoes , 5/15k claiming track. Claiming LA breds and moving them up, working the condition book, etc

[Tiz]

"I underestand where youa re coming from Tiz, but I don't fully buy the whole "old money clique" arguement."

I didn't make this argument.

"It's very chic to say that the guy in the back with the 5 horse barn could outshine em all if given the "right horse" and that the only reason he isn't there is beucase he doesnt' kiss so and so's ass or he doesn't smuck up to this person or so on and so forth. "

I didn't say this either.

"And another thing, it's also very chic to hag on the guy at the top of the standings."

I didn't hag on anyone.

"I'll take it even father, I would venture to say that Calvin knew more about the horse than Hal if you want me to be honest if you study the interviews."

This is a given. There are things you know if you're on the horse, not the ground. While the rider has more info when he jumps off the horse, the trainer will know more then the rider when he cools the horse out.

[erins isle]

I do not know much about this whole matter, but if a trainer does well with a horse, (you can not say he didn't)) the horse should stay there.

Mostly it is much more delicate with fillies than with colts or horses when these are sent to an other barn, with other people and different training regimes.

JMHO

[foundationmare]

BDW....the intent of my commentary was not about the connections. Rather, it was about the general status of horse racing in America. It is overwhelmingly true that, just when a good horse grabs our attention, he/she is retired to the breeding shed. There is not the anticipation of watching a great horse run a great race. We don't have the opportunity to become fans and faithful followers of a talented runner because they're not runners anymore!

That's all. If this game is going to be all about overhyped, overpriced, overtrained incipient "stars", we can expect to be disappointed by those who are well-bred but lack talent, or are in the wrong hands, or are cooked by the practices that make them appealing yearlings or 2 y.o.'s in training.

You read more into my post than I wrote.

[bdw0617]

BDW....the intent of my commentary was not about the connections. Rather, it was about the general status of horse racing in America. It is overwhelmingly true that, just when a good horse grabs our attention, he/she is retired to the breeding shed. There is not the anticipation of watching a great horse run a great race. We don't have the opportunity to become fans and faithful followers of a talented runner because they're not runners anymore!

That's all. If this game is going to be all about overhyped, overpriced, overtrained incipient "stars", we can expect to be disappointed by those who are well-bred but lack talent, or are in the wrong hands, or are cooked by the practices that make them appealing yearlings or 2 y.o.'s in training.

You read more into my post than I wrote.

Oh I agree with you 100%. My whole point was, she never was on the path to a long tried and true career in the first place. but you make an excellent point and you are correct

[Barbaro06]

What gets me is that original owner says "no racing against the boys." Suddenly there's Jackson with his checkbook and voila! There's more of a possibility she is running in the Preakness. Granted, I wouldn't pass up a cool 10 mil (supposedly her selling price) myself, but I find it a bit funny that once it got out that her owner didn't want to race her against the guys, here's Jackson to put RA in competition against the boys.

If she does run in the Preakness and/or Belmont, she won't race again after that (bold prediction by me, I know). She'll be whisked away to the farm to settle and then it's off to the shed to meet Curlin so a "super baby" can be made.