I would think that JJ does not like the fact that she could get beat so opted for where he thinks can continue the super horse status. She is all wrapped up fore and aft for her works I see and does not look like she is relaxing in her works in either of the photos that Glimmer linked. He is a peevish spoiled man, so what else is new?
If Rachel was to go to the 140th running of the Travers Stakes ($1M, Grade 1) it would be the 1st time since 1982 that the winners of the three different legs of the American Classics have raced at Saratoga.
(The last time even just two winners of the American Classics met in the Travers was 1996: Preakness winner Louis Quatorze and Belmont Stakes winner Editor’s Note started)
Things can change with their health and training progress but as of now both Summer Bird and Mine The Bird are scheduled to race in the Travers.
If you get all three horses in that race I’d say you’ll have a race that will easily upstage the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Diet
NYRA’s Rachel Alexandra web page
Per that page:
She sported a new hairstyle for the Preakness – a tightly braided mane instead of loose locks.
She eats 4 quarts of sweet feed for breakfast at 3:30 a.m., 6 quarts for lunch at 11 a.m., and 10 quarts for dinner at 5 p.m. Rachel also gets 4 quarts of cooked oats at dinner.
Yum, yum!
With Saturday’s Mother Goose Stakes the odds:
(PP), Horse, ML Odds:
(1) Hopeful Image: 30-1
(2) Don’t Forget Gil: 15-1
(3) Rachel Alexandra: 1-5
(4) Malibu Prayer: 10-1
(5) Flashing: 4-1
Racel Alexandra was schooled at Belmont on Thursday June 25th:
[Rachel] … stood in the starting gate for a few moments at about 6:30 a.m., then galloped a mile on Belmont’s training track with exercise rider Dominic Terry aboard.
During the sixth race, under sunny skies and with a small crowd looking on, the Stonestreet Stable’s star stood quietly in the saddling enclosure, and then took several turns around the paddock before heading back to the barn with assistant trainer Scott Blasi.
“She was great in the gate this morning,” said Blasi of Rachel Alexandra. “She was relaxed, and paying attention. This afternoon, she parked herself right in the saddling enclosure and she never moved a muscle. I didn’t have to do a thing, and I couldn’t be any happier with how she acted, and how she’s coming into the race.”
NYRA doesn’t exactly have high hopes with massive crowds to see RA (and the rest of the races) tomorrow:
NYRA president and CEO Charlie Hayward is hoping people turn out to see the Preakness winner. How many? Good question.
Hayward said that a normal Belmont crowd on a June Saturday would be between seven and eight thousand. With Rachel in the house, the number should balloon, you would thin.
“If we can five or six thousand more people, it would be a successful day,” Hayward said.
A mere 12,000 people for Saturday racing, jeeze, by comparison Arlington Park (IL) easily will get double that today with not one stakes race on the card. The biggest runner today will be a local-favorite, Recapturetheglory, in the 8th race (a $41k 1 mi allowance race on turf) and who last year won the Illinois Derby and finished 5th in the Kentucky Derby.
Edited to Add:
Dallas FtWorth Star-Telegram’s Gary West cites a Texas connection with Rachel Alexandra and having been originally trained at the Diamond D Ranch. Yep the gal who will be in August’s edition of Vogue was for a time a Lone Star girl just like Jagger’s Jerry Hall 
Over the years, going all the way back to 1981, when Ed Dodwell bought an expanse of flatland with his poker winnings and began a building that would become Diamond D Ranch, at least 124 stakes winners have graduated from there after learning their first lessons as racehorses, right there in Lone Oak.
And the very best of those runs Saturday in New York: Rachel Alexandra.
Diamond D is like a big elementary school, but for horses. There they learn the basics of racing. Youngsters leaving Diamond D can find success anywhere. Some come to Lone Star to race as 2-year-olds, but others go on to Kentucky or California or Louisiana.
Rachel Alexandra, Dodwell said, was the star student last year — actually, the star student of all time. Even in her earliest workouts, “She was just awesome,” Dodwell said; nobody could stay with her and she was clearly best of her class, the way a lightning bolt is clearly different from the lightning bugs."
At one point, he explained, she was scheduled to go into a Florida sale of 2-year-olds in training. But after the Dodwells described her considerable talents to her owner and breeder, Dolph Morrison, he withdrew her from the sale.
The rest is history …
[QUOTE=VirginiaBred;4182727]
I agree with Glimmer on this race. No walk over here.[/QUOTE]
I think we’re now wrong about this 
Two more are skipping: Don’t Forget Gil and Hopeful Image
Now its just a three horse race a/k/a a Grade 1 $300,000 paid workout. Cha-ching
Mark Hennig, trainer of Don’t Forget Gil, said the New York-bred filly didn’t eat up Friday night and had a “high normal” temperature.
“We decided to err on the side of caution, and we took her out,” Hennig said.
I think she was just scared!
Maybe! (hilarious!)
TV?
Will the Mother Goose be broadcast anywhere?
[QUOTE=Carol Ames;4192815]
Will the Mother Goose be broadcast anywhere?[/QUOTE]
Only TVG (Television Games), HRTV, and a special 30-minute MSG Plus network coverage
Is this unusual?
e eats 4 quarts of sweet feed for breakfast at 3:30 a.m., 6 quarts for lunch at 11 a.m., and 10 quarts for dinner at 5 p.m. Rachel also gets 4 quarts of cooked oats at dinner. Yum, yum!
What a joke this race is going to be.
[QUOTE=mintano;4192836]
What a joke this race is going to be.[/QUOTE]
Oh come now she might win only by 12-lengths
[QUOTE=Glimmerglass;4192852]
Oh come now she might win only by 12-lengths :)[/QUOTE]
As long as she comes home safe- I’m happy!
Skipping the BC? Someone’s still bitter about Curlin not showing up that day.
It’s a shame that if she goes in the Travers she’ll likely get a weight allowance. We need more handicap races these days…
[QUOTE=danceronice;4192894]
It’s a shame that if she goes in the Travers she’ll likely get a weight allowance. We need more handicap races these days…[/QUOTE]
There is no “if” with the weight break - always has been the case - the rules aren’t being changed on a whim and selective due to owner pressures. Always has been the case:
Travers is restricted to 3-year olds
Colts/geldings carrying 126 pounds (57 kg)
Fillies carrying 123 pounds (56 kg)
Just wow
New stakes record, easy for her. Almost 20 lengths. I know the field was ridiculous. . .but DAMN!
Loafed. :lol:
She was racing the clock.
She still gives me goosebumps to watch her run. :yes: A stakes record just cruising.
I have to admit she had me a little worried with her switch in running style. Maybe she was channeling Zenyatta?
is the replay anywhere? Would love to see it…
Link please???
