Rachel Alexandra
Breezes for KY Oaks
Photos by Suzie Picou-Oldham
|
Medaglia d’Oro’s star filly Rachel Alexandra served notice to her Kentucky Oaks rivals that she means business in the final work for her May 1st engagement in the premier event for 3-year-old fillies in North America, turning in a half-mile breeze that was nothing short of brilliant in :46 2/5 seconds over a fast Churchill Downs main track.
The work was as good as you’ll see Derby week by a contender in any of the coveted Grade 1 races to be run on the respective Oaks and Derby cards, and it had the on-lookers buzzing all morning about what they had just witnessed by the Oaks favorite. What they saw was widely recognized as the best work of the day – and potentially the last two weeks – by a contender for the Derby or Oaks, as Rachel Alexandra, under regular pilot Calvin Borel, effortlessly powered through eye-catching fractions of :11 3/5, :23 1/5, :34 4/5, while galloping out five furlongs in :58 2/5 and six furlongs in 1:10 3/5. Her extended gallop-out took her through seven furlongs in crisp 1:24 and change.
“It was real nice…really too fast for me, but Calvin just promised me that she’s doing it very easy and relaxed, and he’s not urging her,” said Wiggins. “The main thing is, she came back to the barn fine, cooled out really nice, and when I left, she had her head in the feed tub and everything looked OK.”
Wiggins thinks a fellow filly from the dynamic first-crop of Medaglia d’Oro could be one of Rachel Alexandra’s main challengers in Friday’s 1 1/8-mile, Grade 1 Oaks.
“(Gabby's Golden Gal) is kind of an unknown, but I thought she ran a tremendous race in the Sunland Park Oaks,” said Wiggins of the Bob Baffert runner, who romped by 13 lengths in her stakes debut on March 29th. “I watched her work yesterday, and I thought she worked really nice (five furlongs in 1:00 3/5), she galloped out very strong, and she could kind of be the unknown type coming in here. She’s improving, and if she improves off that Sunland race, she could beat any type.”