Rachel Alexandra a go for La Troienne
 

Will enter for Friday according to CDI's John Asher..

Caught Jess' remarks that she's 85, 90, 95% right now. That's a nice range, should cover his butt whatever happens. You know how fighters would abstain leading up to a big fight? Maybe someone could get Jess to apply that to his speaking about horses. He can only talk after the race, if only because it causes wrinkle lines on my forehead making sense of what he's saying prior.

Asmussen's demeanor and Mike Welsch's observations of her are encouraging. I hope things go well on Monday and Friday. I miss the old Rachel.

Unless something much better than Zardana shows up I expect her to win by many lengths.

What's your opinion of Careless Jewel? I never saw her summer dirt races last year. Seemed like she was left alone on the lead against suspect foes for the most part.

yea, maybe off that form...has she raced since?

Careless Jewel hasn't been out since her BC Ladies Classic flop where she ran off and stopped. She did win a couple of races impressively over the summer albeit against horrible competition. The field she beat in the Alabama (Milwaukee Appeal, Don't Forget Gil, Funny Moon, etc.) was very weak, of course she won by over 12 lengths. She then won the Cotillion at Philly beating Bon Jovi Girl, who came back to finish off the board in an overnight stake at Belmont and Cat Moves, who can't go a step beyond 6 furlongs.

A fit Rachel Alexandra who is in the form she was in last year would beat Careless Jewel on her best day IMO.

NT

Not since the BC. Based on her 1/2 mile fraction times, it wasn't completely shocking to see her run-off like that in the Ladies Classic. Should be in front of Rachel Alexandra early, and if she has anything left at the 3/8s pole, should hamper RA's main weapon of busting the race open entering the stretch.

It will be interesting to see who the closers are. Bill Mott has some Unbridled's Song filly that was up-and-coming last fall and I think won the Sabin or Rampart at GP last out.

A good Careless Jewel is a very good horse.

Nice field.

It does look like a nice field, but I'm hoping the reports from early this week are accurate and the champ shows what she is made of.

I sold my Oaks tickets because I was going to be traveling on Friday, but am mildly regretting it now. Good field indeed.

Should be a lightning quick pace?

i agree, this is how she got beat last out. forget about careless jewel, look at the horses that will be stalking behind rachel and jewel. if rachel comes up short again, its a money making race.

There's not a chance this will be on the teevee, is there?

Looks like Bravo is only doing 1 hr for the Oaks this year, 5-6pm. I suppose they could always show a replay of the race, but it doesn't look like it's live for them.

ETA: Huh, somehow I went up to now not realizing that Careless Jewel was declared due to injury. What's going on with her?

I just saw this now myself:

Yeah that's what I saw. I guess with all the Derby ups and downs, this flew under the radar. So Rachel to the lead?

Distinctive Dixie and Unrivaled Belle seem to do their best work on or near the lead.

Wow … a "must win" for that reigning horse-of-the-year

Can you imagine the embarrassment if she falters in this spot too?


Too bad about CJ

Hopefully little z or one of those obscure beasts can keep the PRESSURE ON…

Is this Sting?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSNtxe4Si34

The music is an interesting touch, but she looks fierce.

What's with the music? Almost wanted to do 2 laps around the living room...listening to that crap.

I'm thinkin' that if she fails here, the DRF/BEYER contingent will be booking weekend spots at the Brooklyn Bridge (for a mass jump). They need her to win more than anyone else. :rolleyes:

Maybe they're trying to inspire to run faster, away from that noise.

no, they are too self centered to do that. there will be other excuses....shes not fit...the fix is in or some equivalant tirade......"our numbers don't lie, something was up" its hilarious.

Almost as hilarious as seeing the Zentologists repeatedly brush aside Shirreffs' laughable justifications for continuing to run her against the same plugs at the same backyard tracks for the millionth and billionth times.

Hell, if she can't take this thing, everyone who voted for her should jump off the nearest high bridge.


Would pretty much be that Favorite Trick debacle all over again…

i cant believe I left you off my list of stupid opinions. How could I forget #1?????

She's a good horse but hardly the horse the majority of this pro Rach board believes she is, you and I know this, a few here know this and I suspect the rest will come to realize this if and when Jess comes out of his shell and meets Zenyatta.

I find it very interesting that all these POLY horses are starting to run on dirt, and, in a good number of cases, are crushing their dirt counterparts. At one time, by the old Beyer system, these were all SLOW horses. Now, they're all faster, with the AD HOC tweaking of the numbers. Of course, the other explanation is that they're all DIRT horses that have been forced to run on POLY, which masks their true ability. :rolleyes: Right.

Now, a good number of these runners are out of the Sadler barn. Sadler has gone from being the king of the stretchouts (one sprint is enough to get a horse fit to win a route) to being the king of the POLY to DIRT arena.

What's equally interesting is that you don't find many dirt horses moving to POLY and doing much of anything. (Someone correct me if I've missed something here.) Clearly, RA (and QR) would've been CRUSHED had they run in the BC. We understand RA's connections' apprehension.

Eventually, we will get to the point where horses able to run on multiple surfaces will be considered superior to those limited to a single surface. Now, for the most part, horses that handle POLY also handle the turf; and, as mentioned, more and more are handling the dirt. To this point, dirt runners have not shown the ability to run on either of the other surfaces -- at least not to the level exhibited by the other side.

The end result will be a complete collapse of the present racing 'paradigm'. Beyers will be of limited use, on dirt, and FAST, as utilized by Beyerites, will really not matter to anyone but the followers. Moreover, the equally ridiculous notion that dirt horses are superior to those running on other surfaces will just go away.

I can say the same damn thing about Zenyatta and her supporters. Enough with the whining. Again, if Zenyatta had ventured out of her playpen more than two times in three years, we wouldn't be having this discussion.

Lost in all of this, and this is KEY, is that Zenyatta showed up for the AB and RA didn't. She also showed up for the BC and RA didn't. How much more simple can it get than that? How long will the silliness continue from the ONLINE RA camp?

So, Z is supposed to go out of her way to meet a horse that didn't show up when she had the chance, TWICE? Anybody with a brain buy into this?

When one's system fails, the result is MUCHO gibberish.

I agree with the premise of this post, one thing I'll add is there is a certain bias against synthetic horses as being less superior to dirt horses. This is especially evident when they fail on dirt or run a number that isn't as good as a dirt beyer; however when a dirt horse fails on synthetics it is a perfect excuse to blame the surface. I would deem any horse that is able to win despite what surface they run on should be considered superior, it's common sense but we still have some thinking that winning on 1 surface, dirt is the measure of great horses, when winning on both truly is.

If Zenyatta stays in California the rest of the year I will be the 1st to criticize her, however she did ship to the Apple Blossom to face Rach, on dirt. So you know what you said is not completely true, we will see a different campaign this year due to them pointing for the BC; however it is also fair to point out Rachel never shipped out west either, nor is she planning to, so I don't understand why she gets a free pass when the other doesn't.

Is the draw for the La Troienne today?

Read below about the BC. Your own logic about dirt and synthetic horses should tell you why they didn't want to run her in the BC, especially after what happened with Curlin the year before. As for the Apple Blossom, I'm disappointed that they didn't run her, but if the horse isn't fit, the horse isn't fit. Unlike the Mosses, Jackson doesn't have a history of treating his supposed superhorse with kid gloves, so he gets the benefit of the doubt. Again, you're deflecting instead of explaining why the immortal Z continues to run against allowance horses in her playpen nine times out of ten.

Because, as your fellow Zentologist points out, dirt horses have a tougher time transferring their form to synthetic than vice versa. It's not understandable that Jackson didn't want to have an ultimate showdown between the two on a surface that Zenyatta was far more likely to excel on?

There's not much confidence from the Rachel camp when you already concede she will lose to Zenyatta out west even without attempting a race, what does that say? Then we come to the Apple Blossom and again they are not confident of facing Zenyatta on their preferred surface. Again that doesn't speak volumes from a faction that believes their horse is superior. Again, I state I believe Rachel is a good horse, a very good horse infact. Great? Not at this point. Better than Zenyatta not even close at this stage, Jess knows this and that is why we now have a last minute entry of Rach in the "Careless Jeweless" La Troienne. But Jess and SA have always been great at cherry picking races haven't they?

Have you gotten into the sherry? Can we stop the HOY retroactive-apalooza? People had an opinion, they were entitled to vote based on that opinion as it related to 2009, it's done. Two valid horses were up, not 1 and a mule. It was a judgment call and a fair one. You can claim whatever you want within the context of 2009. This year proves nothing about the last.

This is a new year, there are new consequences to everything, and the only vote that can be affected is that of 2010.

The truely great ones can run on anything IMO.

Yes