Rachel Alexandra to Woodward

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

If he wanted an easy spot he'd run in the Personal Ensign. In my opinion he's looking for the biggest challenge and what would do the most for his horses' legacy. As fans, we are lucky that she is owned by someone with enough guts to throw his young filly in a race against anyone. I doubt there would be many owners out there willing to run her in the Woodward. This may be once and a lifetime stuff for us (well people my age who werent around for Ruffian/Go For Wand, etc). Owners duck competition these days, she runs in the top races in open competition where anyone could show up to face her.

I'm willing to concede that, from a historical perspective, Rachel winning the Woodward would be more historically significant. However, there's also no doubt in my mind that 10F in the Travers, given the likely field, would be a more demanding race for her than 9F in the Woodward against the likes of Cool Coal Man, Asiatic Boy and Macho Again. That being said, trying to get into Jess Jackson's mind as to why he chose the Woodward over the Travers is only pointless speculation.