You can add a 99 for Rachel Alexandra in the OP stake to match her 99 in The Golden Rod. Not to go off on a rant... but ...
The 99 Beyer for her Golden Rod win is the highest earned by a 2yo filly in a route race at Churchill Downs since Silverbulletday in 1999.
It's also 8 points (or 4.5 lengths) faster than any other Golden Rod winner this decade.
People may forget but Rags To Riches came into her Kentucky Oaks/Belmont sweep never having run faster than a 96 ... albeit she had all that distance pedigree on both sides & earned a 93 despite racing insanely wide on both turns in her stakes debut.
Eight Belles came into her Derby 2nd place finish having run 96-91-99 in her three prior starts ... all stake wins at Oaklawn.
Since the Beyers were first published in the DRF in '92 .. there have been 17 runnings of the Ky Oaks and the avg winning figure is exactly 99.00 - the same fig RA has run in her only 2 career two-turn routes.
The most exicting thing to me about Rachel Alexandra is that she is trained by someone who doesn't have mystical powers.
You see these guys with insane stats like...
Kiaran McLaughlin (7 profitable years out of 8 on the betting dollar from '96-to-'03)
Larry Jones (6 straight profitable years on the betting dollar from '97-to-'02)
Jeff Mullins (7 out of 8 profitable years on the betting dollar from '96-to-'03)
throw in your alchemists like Dutrow, Wolfson, etc. etc. and it's sickening.
With her trainer Hal Wiggins you get....
* A man who has been around longer than dirt and has never won 20% or more in a year.
* A man who once went 1-for-78 in a year - and followed it up with a 4-for-114 the next year.
* A man who is 0-for-20 this year with all horses not named Rachel Alexandra
* A man who is 158-for-1367 in all dirt races since '02 .. with a $2 ROI of $1.26 ... meaning that you lose 37% on the betting dollar - more than double the win pool takeout!
* A man who is 3-for-92 in Graded Stake races .. including his '08 Golden Rod win.
* A man who is 0-for-30 with all horses 2nd off a layoff of 45 days or more since '08.
It's become exciting to see such a rare combo of talented young route horse with a trainer who has no statistical magic at all. Who else isn't nostalgic for a team like Perfect Drift & Murray Johnson or Rock Hard Ten & Jason Ormen?
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