TVG/Betfair pledge to add $400k to the Beldame purse if both RA and Zenyatta run
DiscreetCat
Moderator
from the Louisville Courier-Journal:
Jess Jackson, owner of wonder-filly Rachel Alexandra, keeps saying that the purses should be higher for races for the sport's top horses.
Even as it cut overnight purses, Churchill Downs made the pot $1 million for last year's Stephen Foster to entice Jackson to run defending Horse of the Year Curlin (though, in fairness, I'm not sure if Jackson requested the additional money, or Churchill just thought it needed to be done.)
Jackson acknowledged he told Monmouth officials it would be nice if the Haskell were more than $1 million. It was made $1.25 million, and Rachel ran and romped.
In weighing his decision where to run Rachel next, Jackson was quoted as saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that the $1 million purse of the Grade II Pennsylvania Derby was attractive but that he'd like to run at Saratoga but wished the $500,000 Woodward had a bigger purse.
But now that TVG-Betfair has pledged to ante up $400,000 to make Belmont's Grade I Beldame worth $1 million if both Rachel and unbeaten Zenyatta run, Jackson is uncharacteristically passive. He was quoted in one publication as suggesting it would just be a match race, because if both ran, who else would show up? For $1 million, I'm guessing you'd get at least three others. (And, if it's only a three-horse field, like the Mother Goose, that just works against Zenyatta.)
In a statement addressing the TVG-Betfair offer, Jackson said he was going to continue to take it one race at a time.
"I understand the growing excitement around a race that involves these two magnificent athletes competing, but both camps need to do what is in the best interest of the horse," he said. "And for us, that means waiting until she completes and soundly recovers from her next race before any decisions are made about the Beldame Stakes or any other venue./span>
Well and dandy. Every horseman wants to make sure their horse comes out of one race well - that's a given. But please, show some enthusiasm. At least say, 'Hey, we got to make up our mind about her next race first. But if she comes out of that well, absolutely the Beldame will be our target if Zenyatta shows up.'
Both camps have said they want Rachel and Zenyatta to meet. Let's prove it.
Jackson won't run on synthetics, so no meeting in the Breeders' Cup - Classic or Ladies' Classic.
But if owner Jerry Moss says he'll send Zenyatta to New York for the Beldame to go big-game hunting, it would be unsporting for Jackson not to go on and say, 'As long as Rachel is healthy, count us in.'
Zenyatta needs to do something dramatic like beating Rachel on Rachel's home turf to have any shot at Horse of the Year. And she'd be taking the worst of it in the Beldame.
After all, she IS preparing for the Breeders' Cup, and could stay home and run at Santa Anita in the Grade I Lady's Secret. Instead, she'd be shipping across the country, while Rachel already has run at Belmont and would be settled into her own stall in trainer Steve Asmussen's Belmont barn.
Though both horses are unbeaten at the 1 1/8-mile Beldame distance, it works in Rachel's favor, as 1 1/4 miles would probably work in Zenyatta's. The one-turn Beldame configuration also favors Rachel.
And you've got that magic number - a million bucks.
What is there for Jackson not to like? And what's wrong with saying that?
(And if it doesn't happen for her next race, what better place for the 'Rachel: She runs like a girl' t-shirts to surface?)
Jess Jackson, owner of wonder-filly Rachel Alexandra, keeps saying that the purses should be higher for races for the sport's top horses.
Even as it cut overnight purses, Churchill Downs made the pot $1 million for last year's Stephen Foster to entice Jackson to run defending Horse of the Year Curlin (though, in fairness, I'm not sure if Jackson requested the additional money, or Churchill just thought it needed to be done.)
Jackson acknowledged he told Monmouth officials it would be nice if the Haskell were more than $1 million. It was made $1.25 million, and Rachel ran and romped.
In weighing his decision where to run Rachel next, Jackson was quoted as saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that the $1 million purse of the Grade II Pennsylvania Derby was attractive but that he'd like to run at Saratoga but wished the $500,000 Woodward had a bigger purse.
But now that TVG-Betfair has pledged to ante up $400,000 to make Belmont's Grade I Beldame worth $1 million if both Rachel and unbeaten Zenyatta run, Jackson is uncharacteristically passive. He was quoted in one publication as suggesting it would just be a match race, because if both ran, who else would show up? For $1 million, I'm guessing you'd get at least three others. (And, if it's only a three-horse field, like the Mother Goose, that just works against Zenyatta.)
In a statement addressing the TVG-Betfair offer, Jackson said he was going to continue to take it one race at a time.
"I understand the growing excitement around a race that involves these two magnificent athletes competing, but both camps need to do what is in the best interest of the horse," he said. "And for us, that means waiting until she completes and soundly recovers from her next race before any decisions are made about the Beldame Stakes or any other venue./span>
Well and dandy. Every horseman wants to make sure their horse comes out of one race well - that's a given. But please, show some enthusiasm. At least say, 'Hey, we got to make up our mind about her next race first. But if she comes out of that well, absolutely the Beldame will be our target if Zenyatta shows up.'
Both camps have said they want Rachel and Zenyatta to meet. Let's prove it.
Jackson won't run on synthetics, so no meeting in the Breeders' Cup - Classic or Ladies' Classic.
But if owner Jerry Moss says he'll send Zenyatta to New York for the Beldame to go big-game hunting, it would be unsporting for Jackson not to go on and say, 'As long as Rachel is healthy, count us in.'
Zenyatta needs to do something dramatic like beating Rachel on Rachel's home turf to have any shot at Horse of the Year. And she'd be taking the worst of it in the Beldame.
After all, she IS preparing for the Breeders' Cup, and could stay home and run at Santa Anita in the Grade I Lady's Secret. Instead, she'd be shipping across the country, while Rachel already has run at Belmont and would be settled into her own stall in trainer Steve Asmussen's Belmont barn.
Though both horses are unbeaten at the 1 1/8-mile Beldame distance, it works in Rachel's favor, as 1 1/4 miles would probably work in Zenyatta's. The one-turn Beldame configuration also favors Rachel.
And you've got that magic number - a million bucks.
What is there for Jackson not to like? And what's wrong with saying that?
(And if it doesn't happen for her next race, what better place for the 'Rachel: She runs like a girl' t-shirts to surface?)
Comments
zenyatta is already winning with more weight than any other horse in training!!!