LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A year to the day after the 20-length runaway in the Kentucky Oaks that propelled her to superstardom, 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra will race again at Churchill Downs in Friday’s $400,000 La Troienne Stakes on the Oaks undercard.
The mile-and-a-sixteenth La Troienne will be Rachel Alexandra’s second start of the year. In her 2010 debut and first start since the Sept. 5 Woodward, she was a short horse and finished second to California shipper Zardana. After that defeat, which snapped a nine-race winning streak, owner Jess Jackson pulled Rachel from the proposed “Race for the Ages,” the April 9 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park, where she would have faced the undefeated super mare Zenyatta.
Since then, “Alexandra the Great” has whistled through three bullet workouts at Churchill, most recently six furlongs in 1:11 2/5 last Monday.
“Right now, we’re pointing [to the La Troienne],” Jackson, who purchased Rachel Alexandra for a reported $10 million after she won the Kentucky Oaks, said yesterday. “Her workout [tomorrow] will tell us a lot more. It’ll be light, it’s not gong to be a bullet.
“We want to see that she stays on track and improves every time she goes out,” he said. “That’s what’s been happening the last two or three times. Churchill is her favorite track, and she’s surely giving us every sign of being ready to run. She’s going to need another race before she really defines herself the way she did last year, but I think she’s 85 percent to 90, maybe 95, right now.” Entries for the La Troienne will be taken Tuesday.