Rachel Readies Return

To quote Gary Owens, announcer from "Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In", "GET READY AMERICA!" because here she comes again. Rachel Alexandra, winner of the 2009 Preakness, worked out today to get a final tune-up in before she races again this weekend at Belmont Park in the Grade 1 $300,000 Mother Goose Stakes. The filly went a nifty half-mile in 49.80 seconds and galloped out an extra furlong in 1:03.40.

The major obstacle for Rachel Alexandra's connections going forward will be, who will be running against her? She likely will only face three or four fillies in the Goose on Saturday. If she races against no one of any consequence, how will that effect her place in history? Jess Jackson and Steve Asmussen might have to keep running her against the boys just to get her some decent competition. I believe that they are planning to do that in either the Travers or Haskell later this summer. However, how much will she be getting out of the public workouts any of her races against her own sex figure to be? How tough will she be when she gets back into the tough stuff her summer schedule could become if the connections tire of assumed walkovers?

I think these will all be interesting questions for Rachel Alexandra and her star-studded connections and I, for one, am interested to see how everything plays out for her later this year.

Tune in tomorrow for more from They Are Off. For right now, I am Gone... GOODBYE!