Irrelevant Rachel

When I wrote that nobody (well, almost nobody) would possibly travel to Saratoga specifically to see Rachel Alexandra, I figured, OK, at least some people would. Or, at the very least, that a fair amount of people who were already there for the Travers would stick around! But 23,347? Hell, I would have been writing I-told-ya-so at 30,000. While we'll no doubt see a NYRA press release touting the 30% attendance increase over the 18,014 who attended the day-after-Travers program last year (when a rainy Travers day held that day's crowd down to some 34,000 as opposed to the 45,000 on Saturday), don't believe the hype. On a perfect weather day as it was, Sunday's crowd was an unqualified failure.

I do feel bad for NYRA and their hard-working promotion department, who pulled out all the stops to promote the appearance. But as I've contended many times, you can't promote in a vacuum. There was no real compelling reason to come to Saratoga on Sunday - no rivalry renewed, no defense of her Woodward title, little perceived competition to face. Interest in the filly peaked and died between late last year and early this with two high-profile duckings of Zenyatta by owner Jess Jackson. She subsequently stuttered her way through a soulless campaign of four races against nondescript competition that she only dominated once (and only beat twice). Whatever drawing power she once might have had, she apparently no longer does.

As far as the race goes, Rachel apologists will try to tell us that she tired from her efforts to valiantly fight off Life At Ten. But, for one thing, who the hell is she, really? A nice mare who's learned the game at age five, but whose six race winning streak, which included two on the Big A inner track and two others against short fields, and in which she failed to Beyer over 101, was hardly the stuff of greatness. Besides, Rachel set a comfortable pace - 1:12 1/5 to the 3/4s....that as compared to the 1:10 2/5 in the Woodward last year. You can explain her final quarter of 27.12 and her stopping cold at the eighth pole - "We must have come home in 14," according to Borel - by saying that she simply can't get the mile and a quarter distance, or that, for whatever reason, she's not the same filly she was last year. But not because she was subjected to any kind of race conditions that a horse who was, not long ago, touted as the greatest filly of all time, shouldn't have easily been able to brush off.

And as to whether or not she will run again? Spare us the drama, please. If nobody really cared when she was running, nobody will certainly care whether she does or doesn't again. And Jess Jackson has nobody to blame but himself for her descent into irrelevancy.

- Afleet Express got a Beyer of 105 for his win in the Travers. LOL. Are you kidding me? It was the only two-turn dirt race of the day, and I'd love to hear an explanation of that. As far as I'm concerned, Beyer figures are meaningless anyway when horses come home as slow as they did....they should have gotten an N/A. By whatever logic was used to project that number, if Afleet Express had run merely an average Travers time by historical standards, he could be sitting with the high Beyer of the year!

- Sunday's crowd can't bode well for the remainder of the meet as far as attendance goes. Last year, NYRA had Rachel's appearance in the Woodward to promote, but there's not much about that race to get excited about this year. It is a great weekend to go up there though, with the track, and the town, usually less crowded. The fields are generally large as stables try to get one more race in, and the long-range weather forecast is favorable. Plus, there's the awesome Final Stretch Music Festival in town on Saturday and Sunday nights. So go, if you have the time and the means. I'd be there myself. If I wasn't instead going to be here.