[Vision2020] She's Got Legs

[Tom Hansen]

She's Got Legs
By Rick Reilly

The greatest horse in the world will get to stretch her legs in the Preakness

Racel Alexandra and jocky Calvin Borel
http://tinyurl.com/RachelAlexandra

If you love to see a strong female take on the boys, if you think fillies
should be given every chance to compete with studs, if you despise sleazy
efforts by rich men to keep girls off the field, we have a heroine for
you. Her name is Rachel Alexandra and she's beautiful, fast and young. Oh,
and she's a racehorse. In fact, she's one of the fastest racehorses in the
world. You can see her run in Saturday's Preakness, but only thanks to a
last-second triumph of brains over bullies. Pull up a chair: Undefeated in
four tries this year, Rachel Alexandra is ridden by Calvin Borel, who has
yet to even ask her to run. "Most of the time, I just end up pettin' her,"
he says. She's ranked the No. 1 3-year-old by the NTRA, all sexes. She
wins most races by the length of a Wal-Mart. "She could be the next
Secretariat," Borel says.

So how come Alexandra the Great didn't win the Kentucky Derby? Because she
wasn't entered.

Not run Rachel Alexandra? That'd be like leaving your Lamborghini Diablo
in the garage! Making Emeril order Domino's! Sticking Halle Berry in a
nunnery!

"Colts should run against colts and fillies should run against fillies,"
explained Rachel's then-owner, Dolphus Morrison, a man whose thinking is
so caveman he could star in a Geico ad. He believes the Derby is a
"showcase" for future stallions. He means, of course, stallion owners, who
can show their horse's speed in the Derby and then get much more in stud
fees when they retire them way too early at the end of the season. Money
over history, in other words. So the Derby was won by Mine That Bird, a
gelding. So how'd that work out for the breeders, Mr. Morrison? That left
Rachel Alexandra to race in the biggest fillies race in America—the
Kentucky Oaks—the day before the Derby. She crushed the field by 20
1/4-lengths with Borel in the saddle. Then, the next day, Borel rode Mine
That Bird to a 6 3/4-length win in the Derby. I pulled him aside afterward
and asked a hypothetical, "Let's say Rachel could enter the Preakness,
which horse would you ride?" He looked at me like I was speaking Swahili.
"Oh," he said, "I'd ride Rachel, no question. She's the best horse I ever
sat on." And, remember, this wasn't an hour after he sat on a Derby
winner, and not even two years since he sat on the 2007 Derby winner,
Street Sense. Borel's choice reminded me of the one made by Hall of Fame
jockey Jacinto Vasquez, who rode both the filly Ruffian and the 1975 Derby
winner, Foolish Pleasure. A match race was set up at Belmont between the
two and Vasquez chose Ruffian. After all, she was 10-0. But Ruffian
snapped her leg and had to be euthanized. Maybe Morrison was secretly
thinking about Ruffian or maybe Eight Belles, the filly who finished
second in the 2008 Derby and then broke both front legs past the finish
line and was put down on the spot, the only death in the 135-year history
of the race. Nobody will forget Ruffian and nobody will forget Eight
Belles, but life comes with tragedy. Fifteen men have died at Indy and yet
drivers still enter it. Many women have died running marathons, but
runners keep doing them. Thoroughbreds are born to race.

But pessimism ruled at Pimlico and we were looking at a Masters without
Tiger Woods—until last week. That's when Jess Jackson, owner of Curlin,
bought Rachel—a horse that trainer Bob Baffert called "the freak of all
freaks"—and immediately entered her in the Preakness. It was now the
"Freakness." The buzz was humming. Horse racing had drama again. Life was
good. Until things got ugly, which they usually do in this game. Because
Rachel wasn't originally a Triple Crown nominee, she could only run in the
14-horse Preakness if 13 or fewer nominated horses entered, which looked
like it would be the case. But then Mark Allen, the owner of Mine That
Bird, announced he was thinking of entering his other horse —Indy
Express—just to bump Rachel, thereby getting back his star jockey. (Hey,
Mark, I don't like your chances for Sportsman of the Year.)

It got worse. Adding his name to the list of co-conspirators was Ahmed
Zayat, owner of Pioneerof the Nile, who said he'd also like to block
Rachel with an extra horse. Sure! If you can't beat her on the track, beat
her in the registering office.

The whole thing made you want to roll around in stable manure just for the
comparative cleanliness of it.

In the end, the female was saved by 
 a female. Marylou Whitney, a great
lady of horse racing, said she'd pull Luv Gov in the Preakness if Rachel
wasn't allowed to race. "We think Rachel Alexandra is wonderful,"
Whitney's husband, John Hendrickson, told the New York Times. "It is
ladies first for us."

Imagine that.

That caused the two conniving owners to drop their scheme in shame and
give Rachel her spot in Baltimore.

To repeat: In the face of fear and chauvinism and collusion, the very best
athlete will get her chance. And isn't that when sport is at its best?

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Seeya at Farmers' Market, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change
and the Realist adjusts his sails."

- Unknown