SARATOGA SPRINGS — How special is Rachel Alexandra, the 3-year-old super filly who will tackle older male horses for the first time in Saturday’s Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes?
So special that the New York Racing Association bumped up the Woodward purse from $500,000, the only time anyone can remember when NYRA increased a purse for a single horse.
So special that NYRA and the town of Saratoga Springs have declared a “six-day Labor Day weekend,” beginning tomorrow, to close out this summer’s meet, anchored around Rachel’s attempt to become the first filly to win the Woodward in its 56-year history.
The streets downtown will be festooned with Rachel Alexandra banners, special deals are being offered by hotels and restaurants (see http://www.saratoga.org), and the first 25,000 fans on Saturday will receive a souvenir Rachel Alexandra button. Gates open at 7 a.m.
Two-time Horse of the Year Curlin, like Rachel Alexandra owned by wine magnate Jess Jackson and trained by Steve Asmussen, received similar treatment last year.
“This is the apex of racing in America. There’s no place we’d rather be,” Barbara Banke, Jackson’s wife, said in the winner’s circle yesterday after Mayor Scott T. Johnson proclaimed Saturday “Rachel Alexandra Day.”
Yesterday morning, “Alexandra the Great” had her final tune-up for the Woodward, breezing a half-mile in :49.09 over the Oklahoma training track. Her two previous workouts, five furlongs in 1:00.37 on Aug. 17 and six furlongs in 1:11.84 on Aug. 24, left the clockers double-checking their stopwatches.
“The filly has done extremely well here,” Asmussen said. “The cool mornings put some pep in her step. It’s great to have the opportunity to run on this stage, in the same race Curlin was fortunate enough to win last year.”
Rachel Alexandra will be odds-on against a field that could include Asiatic Boy, Bullsbay, Coal Play, Cool Coal Man, It’s a Bird, Macho Again, Past the Point and Tizway. None is the caliber of past Woodward champions like Kelso, Forego, Seattle Slew or Affirmed, but each is capable of running a big race on any given day.
“You can find blemishes in the older horses,” Asmussen said. “But there’s an old saying, ‘I’m not as fast as I once was, but I’m as fast once as I ever was.’ We realize what a tall order it is [for Rachel Alexandra to win the Woodward], and hope she gives the fans a show. But it will take a career effort for her to beat them.”
