by: Elizabeth Rancani

Now it is announced that Jess Jackson who we all adored last year for bringing Curlin back at four, owns super filly Rachel Alexandra, and may run her in the Preakness Stakes. That should be a good thing for the sport, but for some reason I am getting visions of a man who wants so badly to be back in the limelight and have the top horse, that he will go to whatever ends to get it. The late Stuart Janney could probably teach him a thing or too about the limelight and what is really important in horse racing.

No, it is not breeding. Nor, is it seeing another Triple Crown winner. If Mine That Bird loses the Preakness, horse racing will continue on, staggering around on three legs like it has done for the past two decades, but it will still survive. It will sit on the back page of sports sections, until next year’s Kentucky Derby and hope of another Triple Crown winner comes along. Then a horse like Big Brown or Smarty Jones, one that was expected to win the Kentucky Derby, may take it back to the front page until after the Belmont Stakes, win or lose.

Horse racing has suffered two deaths during the Triple Crown since 2006, both were front page news. The feel good sport suffered major image problems after last year’s Kentucky Derby with the death of Eight Belles. So too was the death of the great filly Ruffian after a highly touted match race in 1975. One sportswriter at the time said it was like the titanic going down when Ruffian stumbled on that track. Another said it is like the sport never fully recovered from that incident. If Rachel Alexandra cannot handle the pressure on the track at Pimlico in the Preakness stakes, and injury befalls her, heaven help the sport of kings. It was not any less when Go For Wand died on the track at the Breeders Cup, but the masses don’t watch the Breeders Cup. The Cup, although a far more interesting day in horse racing, in my opinion, doesn’t warrant the press the Triple Crown does.

Randy Moss wrote a very interesting article for ESPN about the star filly. He said that just because Rachel Alexandra makes it look easy, doesn’t mean it is easy for her, or that the Oaks didn’t take a lot out of her. There is a lot of truth to that. Great horses run very fast, because that is what they love to do. They have speed, class, stamina and a heart to match. It is often the heart that carries them on long after the body has grown weary. There is little doubt if Rachel Alexandra would let a horse pass her in the stretch tired or not, and that is too eerily similar of that other late great filly. Ruffian’s trainer, Whiteley once said, “only the good ones get hurt. The bad ones don’t run hard enough to get hurt.” He was spot on. Go for Wand ran her heart out when the older mare Bayokoa refused to yield. Go for Wand carried on, until her weary legs could carry her no farther. She ran until all that was left was three legs, with a fourth dangling, grossly deformed. It is an image that will never leave me. Eight Belles ran the race of her life and a few strides past the finish line both broke ankles. Ruffian ran on a broken leg for 300 yards, for she refused to lose, thus eliminating all chance of survival.

Horses nowadays are not bred for durability. Fact. It is therefore the job of the owner and trainer to ensure that a horse is at its absolute peak when asking for its absolute best. Rachel will have just two weeks between the Oaks and Preakness, the smallest margin of time between races ever for her. And she will be asked to run the race of her life, against some equally tough boys, many with a lot more rest than she. Is it that important for her to win the Preakness Stakes? Frank Whiteley was adamant against Ruffian’s match race. She had just won the filly Triple Crown, and although she made it look easy, the spring still took its toll on his filly. He wanted to wait to face the boys in the fall, and said numerous times, he couldn’t wait until the fall so Ruffian could ‘whip ol Forego’s butt’. He said there was not a horse in the country who could beat her, and that may have been the truth. Oh, what a race that would have been- Ruffian and Forego. But, her owner was dazzled by the attention she drew, and felt the three ring circus the match race brought about was a way to tap into that in a big way. No one will say that celebrity didn’t motivate the decision. Horse racing had a star, and instead of jubilation, the sport opened itself up to scrutiny and many who watched that match race, never watched another race again. The sport apparently learned a lesson that day as well because there has not been a match race between major stars since.

Too bad the lesson was lost on some of the sport’s participants. Jess Jackson was the hero last year, and whether or not he stays that way, depends on how he handles his stable’s newest star. He is in a precarious situation, for Hal Wiggins made Rachel a force on the track, and if Asmusssen doesn’t have that same luck, people will always blame Jackson for the trainer switch. If, however, something happens to the filly in the next few weeks, Jackson will become the quintessential villain, and will suffer the likes of what Larry Jones endured last year after Eight Belle’s death. What Jones went through will look like a walk in the park by comparison.