A time of reflection

As we are a little more then 24 hours away from the final leg of the Triple Crown, I thought I would look back on what has transpired in the past few months.

January: Midshipman is awarded the 2yo Champion Eclipse for the males and Stardom Bound is awarded the 2yo Champion Eclipse for the females. Old Fashioned is the early favorite to win the Derby, while Stardom Bound's new owners are thinking of running her in the Derby instead of the Oaks.

March: Old Fashioned makes his 3yo debut in the Southwest (In Febuary), where he fights it out tooth and nail with Silver City. He wins, but looked very vernurable in the race. Meanwhile his stablemate Friesan Fire is tearing up Louisana. Stardom Bound is having trouble in California winning two races, but they where not pretty. Meanwhile she has been overtaken by Justwhistledixie who is running in Florida and Rachel Alexandra in the Mid-West. By this time, Midshipman has been declared out of the Triple Crown due to injury. His two new stablemates Desert Party and Regal Ransom would end up repasenting Godolphin in the Derby. By the end of the month, Old Fashioned would no longer be undefted as Win Willy upset him in the Rebel.

April: After the AR Derby, Old Fashioned would be retired due to injury. General Quarters' magic carpet ride continued with a win in the G1 Blue Grass Stakes. Stardom Bound lost in the G1 Ashland, got a jockey change, but it ended up not being nessarry as she is out until at least the fall. For the second year in a row, niether of the Champion 2yo's would race in either the Derby or Oaks. Rachel Alexandra would solidfy herself as the one to beat in the Oaks by winning the Fantasy. Meanwhile, New Mexico racing gets some interest as Advice who ran in the Sunland Derby, won the Coolmore Lexington. Also all eyes would be on two horses Quality Road and I Want Revenge, as these two where going to be neck and neck as for favoritism in the Derby.

However, before the race would be run, both Quality Road and I Want Revenge would be out of the race.

May: After an amazing 20 length proformance in the Oaks, many wondered how Rachel Alexandra would have done in the Derby? It really wasn't a fair compersion as her biggest compition, Justwhistledixie, was scratched due to an injury. However, her owner Dolphus Morrison was percendant in saying that she would not have run in the Derby. "Stallions should run with Stallions and Fillies with fillies", is how he put it.

STALLION DERBY? Well Mr. Morrison's theroy was proven wrong when Mine That Bird shocked the world at 50-1 when he had a ground saving stretch run to win the Derby by about 6 1/2 lengths, and run the fastest final quarter since Secretariat. Why was this theroy wrong? That's because Mine That Bird is a gelding!

Many thorough that he was just a fluke (including this blogger), and that the Derby favorite Friesan Fire just ran a bad race. Fresh horses could beat him in the Preakness, I thought. But what happend next changed the complextion of this year's Triple Crown.

Rachel Alexandra was sold for approx. 10 million dollar (the exact price is not known), to Jess Jackson who campagined Curlin to two Horse of the Year titles. This ment a change in trainer, Hal Wiggins out, Steve Asmussen in. Many (including myself), where really not happy with the change in trainers. However, since Steve is Mr. Jackson's main man, it's not suprise that it did happen. However, this left a small problem, who was going to ride her in the Preakness. This was a problem as her jockey Calvin Borel, is not the regular riding for Asmussen. He was also the rider of Mine That Bird in the Derby.

In the end, Borel kept the mount on Rachel, and Mike Smith picked up the mount on Mine. The Preakness turned out to be just what horse racing needed. The filly winning and the Derby winner showing that he was not a fluke and being a game second. It was also great news for Mine's sire Birdstone and Rachel's sire Medaglia d'Oro, both of their first crops are currently 3yo's.

June: Rachel will sit out the Belmont and Mine That Bird, with Calvin Borel back on, will try to complete the Triple Crown in style. If he wins, Borel will become only the second person to win the TC with two horses in the same year. Trainer D. Wayne Lukas was the first when he won the 1995 Derby and Belmont with Thunder Gulch and that year's Preakness with Timber Country.

I hope that everyone enjoys tomarrow's Belmont, I will be back either Sunday or Monday with full recap of the Belmont.

Meanwhile Medaglia d'Oro is moving to Darley! Link