Rachel Alexandra with jockey Calvin Borel aboard (left) crosses the finish line to win the 134th running of the Preakness Stakes at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on May 16, 2009. (Photo: Jason Reed/Reuters)
Fantastic Filly
Rachel Alexandra quiets the naysayers by defeating 12 male horses and becoming the first filly to win the Preakness Stakes in 85 years
Rachel Alexandra became an American sports icon on Saturday.
The 3-year-old horse entered the starting gate at the 134th Preakness Stakes horse race in Baltimore in the 13th slot. To her left were 12 other horses. All male. One was the winner of the Kentucky Derby.
Rachel is one of the best racehorses in the world. But coming into the race, she was faced with big challenges.
No horse—male or female—had ever won the Preakness from her gate position.
No filly had won the race since 1924.
If some racehorse owners had their way, she wouldn't have even been on the track.
Once the race began, none of that mattered
Jockey Calvin Borel got Rachel out to an early lead. The 12 other horses closed in on her as they rounded the last turn. One of them was Mine That Bird, the horse that had won the Kentucky Derby.
But Borel held them off, and Rachel charged her way across the finish line.
Rachel Alexandra became the first filly (a female horse under age 4) to win the Preakness in 85 years. And she silenced her critics by showing them that a filly can be better than the colts.
Of course, that's something Rachel's jockey already knew.
"I've been in this business 30 years, so I've been around long enough to know this is a special horse," Borel said. "She's the best horse I've ever ridden in my life."
The 42-year-old Borel raced Mine That Bird to its Kentucky Derby victory two weeks ago. And with both Rachel and the Derby winner in the Preakness, Borel had to choose which horse to ride.
He went with the filly.
But his choice was almost taken away from him. The owners of Mine That Bird and another racehorse, Pioneerof the Nile, tried to force Rachel out of the race.
The Preakness accepts up to 14 horses for the race. For a horse to be included, its owners must express an interest in entering the horse in the race. Rachel's original owner didn't do that. Her new owner, Jess Jackson, decided he wanted her in the race. The only way she would be allowed in was if 13 or fewer horses were entered.
Mark Allen and Ahmed Zayat thought Rachel shouldn't be allowed to run against the male horses. Part of the reason:They were afraid Rachel would defeat their horses. So they planned to enter more horses into the Preakness in order to keep her out.
When word got out about this plan, fans and officials screamed foul.
"If that's what we've come to, it's a sad state of affairs," Maryland Racing Commission chairman John Franzone told the Thoroughbred Times. "The point is, if you truly think you have the best horse, you take on all comers. You don't try to manipulate it so there's an advantage."
In face of the uproar, the owners backed down. Rachel was able to take her place as the 13th and final horse in the Preakness.
Rachel more than lived up to the hype. She beat 12 male horses in winning the Preakness. And she showed the boys that speed, strength, and greatness are qualities they both share.
"My horse ran well, but we got beat by a great one," Derek Ryan, the trainer of third-place finisher Musket Man, said. "She's a filly for the ages."
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