Boys will be boys. And Rachel Alexandra, winner by 20 1/4 lengths in the Kentucky Oaks (for females), has them running scared.
On Sunday, May 10, Ahmed Zayat, the owner of the Kentucky Derby runner-up Pioneerof the Nile said in an interview on HRTV that he and Mark Allen, co-owner of Derby winner Mine That Bird, had discussed entering other of their eligible horses in the 14-field Preakness Stakes in order to prevent Rachel Alexandra from participating.
After objections were raised, however, both Zayat and Allen scrapped their plans for intervention.
The Kentucky Oaks winner, who was not originally nominated for the Triple Crown races, will be able to run in the Preakness, if no more than 13 Triple Crown nominees enter and if her owner pays a $100,000 supplemental fee to make her eligible, which he plans to do. Entries close on Wednesday morning, May 13.
One concern for Allen was that Calvin Borel, who rode Mine That Bird to victory in the Derby, had made a yearlong commitment to ride Rachel Alexandra. When the filly, who has won five consecutive stakes under Borel, was sold to Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables just days after the Derby and put with trainer Steve Asmussen, the possibility of running her against the boys became reality. But Mine That Bird’s trainer, Chip Woolley, had made alternative arrangements with jockey Mike Smith.
“He saw how the horse ran and knows the kind of style that he has and we’re confident that he’ll do his job well,” Woolley said of the Hall of Fame rider, who won the 2005 Kentucky Derby on 50 to 1 shot Giacomo and the 1993 Preakness on Prairie Bayou.
Excellent Meeting in 1999 was the most recent filly to compete in the Preakness (and just the third since 1939), but she was pulled up and did not finish. The last filly to win the race was Nellie Morse in 1924.
Pimlico odds maker Frank Carulli has confirmed that he will make Rachel Alexandra the morning line favorite.
Genuine Risk and Winning Colors, the last fillies to win the Kentucky Derby, were also sent off as Preakness morning line favorites, but there was controversy surrounding their efforts.
A rough early duel between Winning Colors and Forty Niner in the 1988 Preakness caused some to suggest that trainer Woody Stephens sacrificed his horse to compromise trainer D. Wayne Lukas’ chances with Winning Colors (Risen Star won the race, while Winning Colors finished third and Forty Niner was seventh).
The incident is also reminiscent of the 1980 Preakness, when the winner Codex was accused of intimidating Genuine Risk, who finished second. Genuine Risk’s owners sought to overturn the result, but the Maryland Racing Commission upheld the finish.