Rachel Alexandra Wins Preakness Stakes

(CBS/AP)  The best 3-year-old in the land just happens to be a filly named Rachel Alexandra.

Jockey Calvin Borel all but guaranteed victory in the Preakness Stakes and, boy, did she deliver, becoming the first filly in 85 years to win the second leg of the Triple Crown. The win also validated Borel's decision to climb off Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird and stay on as her regular rider.

Now Borel may get a shot at a personal Triple Crown, if Rachel Alexandra goes on to the Belmont Stakes in three weeks. The 1½-mile race is the most grueling of the three.

"I'm not worried about nothing," he said. "It's going to take a racehorse to beat her."

Rachel Alexandra held off a late charge by Mine That Bird to win by a length on Saturday in her first race against the boys. She had already beaten up on her own gender, winning her five previous races by a combined 43½ lengths.

Fillies don't normally race against colts, reports CBS News correspondent Michelle Miller. The boys tend to be bigger, stronger and faster. But it wasn't tradition that almost kept Rachel Alexandra out of this year's Preakness. It was hubris. Some owners plotted to stack the race with other horses to edge her out. They backed down after bad PR, reports Miller.

To add even more drama, the jockey of Mine That Bird also races Rachel Alexandra. Guess who he picked to ride here?

"You've got a jockey who got off the Derby winner, Mine That Bird, to get on the filly," Sandra McKee, a sports reporter for the Baltimore Sun, told Miller. "Unheard of! Unheard of getting off and then getting on a filly in the same race!"

With her win, observers say Rachel Alexandra has given the sport a much-needed giddy-up.

"I think it's great for horse racing and is going to bring a little more enthusiasm to the race," Gary Stute, the trainer of Papa Clem, told Miller. "Instead of just the husband watching the race, the husband and wife will be watching."

Musket Man finished third, as he did in the Derby, followed by Flying Private and Big Drama.

Sent off as the 9-5 favorite, Rachel Alexandra covered the 1 3-16 miles in 1:55.08 and became the first horse to win at Pimlico from the No. 13 post on the far outside.

She paid $5.60, $4.60 and $3.60. Mine That Bird returned $6.60 and $4.80, while Musket Man paid $5 to show.

The last filly to win the Preakness was Nellie Morse in 1924.

[prhansen]

PETA recently erected a headstone at Churchill Downs race track (Kentucky Derby) to represent the 12,000 ?racehorses" who are sent to slaughter every year. PETA also placed 263 headstones to represent the known horses who have died on the track since last year's Kentucky Derby. There is one headstone for the approximately 832 other horses who have died but whose names are not known, and a special memorial to Eight Belles, who was ridden to her death from a heart attack on the track. The horse-racing industry has caused 13,095 horses to die this past year. That's enough to fill a cemetery plus some.

[prhansen]

Horse racing is an outdated spectator sport that exploits and threatens the lives and the health of animals and I won't support it . The state should take corrective action and halt racing altogether, hopefully it will get that way during this bad economy, it never should have been started in the first place. It is an antiquated form of entertainment from too many years ago. threatening the lives of the many animals who don't win, and are shipped to Mexico for food. the ones who break their legs destroyed only to go to land fill.

[observer2020]

Way to show those boys up! This girl IS something special. Beautiful stride. She was a little shaken....notice her ears back, but came through like the lady she is! And the jockey, Borel, definitely seems to know his horses.

[Solarrays247]

50 more yards and it would have been a different story.
Posted by aubfmet at 8:18 AM : May 17, 2009


There is always another side to the story, however, "almost, doesn't count."

[aubfmet]

50 more yards and it would have been a different story.

[albert571]

It's really nice to read a story that doesn't involve president Obama!!

[demongirl60]

YOU GO GIRL !!!!

[ladypirate2]

Rachel Alexandra is a beautiful filly! Let's not forget about Mine That Bird, though. He has twice come from being dead last to first win the Derby and then be second in the Preakness! He is a great horse and he has heart!

[wordsurf_08]

geez, louise!! i dind't even know that girls raced!!

[gravyboat45]

Calvin just cemented his future. When he's not riding, he's picking horses. I love this guy, and I plan to put money on whatever horse he rides next, or picks for the rest of his career!