Stakes Advance: Rachel Alexandra Projected as 1-5 Choice in New Orleans Ladies

1751 Gentilly Blvd.,   New Orleans, LA 70119   www.fairgroundsracecourse.com

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Contact: Jim Mulvihill, Communications and Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager, 504.948.1233, james.mulvihill@fgno.com

Contact: Graham Ross, Press Box, 504.948.1255, graham.ross@fgno.com

 

 

rachel alexandra projected as 1-5 choice in new orleans ladies

 

By Graham Ross

 

NEW ORLEANS (Monday, March 08, 2010) – Based on her unprecedented success as a 3-year-old filly last year, Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra has been installed as the prohibitive 1-5 morning line choice when she faces four female rivals in Fair Grounds’ inaugural running of the $200,000 New Orleans Ladies this Saturday in the super filly’s first start of the 2010 racing season.

 

The Ladies will be contested at 1 1/16-miles over the main track at the historic Crescent City oval – the same venue where Rachel Alexandra underlined her initial 2009 success with a facile 1 3/4-length win in the Grade II Fair Grounds Oaks a year ago. It will go at 5:15 p.m. CST as Race 10 on an 11-race program with first post set for 12:40 p.m. CST.

 

Following her score in the 2009 Fair Grounds Oaks, Rachel Alexandra journeyed to Hot Springs, Arkansas, where she captured the Grade II Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn Park. After that, it was on to Churchill Downs, where she became the fourth of the last five Fair Grounds Oaks winners to go on and capture the Grade I Kentucky Oaks. However, her win under the Twin Spires was by 20 1/4-lengths with a dominant performance on the day before the Kentucky Derby.

 

That Kentucky Oaks win proved to be the genesis of a private sale to Jess Jackson of Stonestreet Stable and his partner Harold McCormick, who redirected her campaign under their trainer Steve Asmussen toward a start against male rivals in the Grade I Preakness as the middle jewel of the 2009 Triple Crown. There she beat Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird by a length on May 16.

 

Back in against members of her own sex June 27 at Belmont Park, Rachel Alexandra was dominant again in the Grade I Mother Goose, winning by 19 1/4-lengths, a performance that set up a challenge against older males in the Grade I Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park Aug. 2. That time she defeated Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird by six lengths, setting up her final start of the year – again against older males in Saratoga’s Grade I Woodward Stakes – where she withstood last year’s Grade II New Orleans Handicap winner Macho Again by a head at the wire.

 

Her opponents Saturday in the New Orleans Ladies, where she will be ridden once again by regular rider Calvin Borel, are headed by Arnold Zetcher’s Brazilian-bred Zardana, fourth in Santa Anita Park’s Grade II Santa Maria Handicap on Feb. 13 but winner of Hollywood Park’s Grade II Bayakoa Handicap before that. She will be ridden by Southern California jockey David Flores and is pegged at 5-1 in the morning line.

 

Next in the morning line odds in the New Orleans Ladies at 6-1 is Coteau Grove Farms’ Clear Sailing, heroine of Fair Grounds’ $60,000 Pelleteri Stakes Feb. 13 and a winner by 8 3 /4-lengths here before that in a first-level allowance race Jan. 17. Shane Sellers retains the mount.

 

Completing the New Orleans Ladies field is a pair of 15-1 long shots – Robert Adams’ Unforgotten, seventh in the Sunshine Millions Distaff at last asking Jan. 30 who will have Miguel Mena aboard; and Jim Tafel’s Fighter Wing, second behind Clear Sailing in the Pelleteri. She will have Corey Lanerie astride.

 

Complete Field

Here’s the complete field for the inaugural running of the $200,000 New Orleans Ladies, for fillies and mares, four-year-olds and upward, at 1 1/16 miles, from the rail out (with jockey, trainer, and morning line odds): Fighter Wing (Corey Lanerie, Greg Geier, 15-1); Rachel Alexandra (Calvin Borel, Steve Asmussen, 1-5); Zardana (David Flores, John Shirreffs, 5-1); Unforgotten (Miguel Mena, Dallas Stewart, 15-1); and Clear Sailing (Shane Sellers, Glenn Delahoussaye, 6-1).

 

About Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, the nation’s third-oldest Thoroughbred racing facility, has been in operation since 1872. Located in New Orleans, Fair Grounds is owned by Churchill Downs Incorporated (NASDAQ Global Select Market: CHDN); it also operates a slot-machine gaming facility and 10 off-track betting parlors throughout southeast Louisiana. Fair Grounds’ 138th Thoroughbred season will run through March 28, 2010, highlighted by the Grade II Louisiana Derby on March 27. Information about Fair Grounds can be found online at www.fairgroundsracecourse.com.

                                                                                                       

-FG-

 

                                                                       

 

 

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James J. Mulvihill
Communications & Pari-Mutuel Marketing Manager
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots
A Churchill Downs Incorporated Company

1751 Gentilly Boulevard, New Orleans, LA  70119

504.948.1233 [office]
504.481.8770 [cell]
504.944.7853 [fax] 

Rachel Alexandra in the New Orleans Ladies March 13

Starlight Racing Returns March 19

 

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