Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown

Rachel Alexandra has been retired and her 2010 season was far short of expectations set by her connections and racing fans. This year started off with the prospect of a showdown with Zenyatta that looked like a lock until March 13th when Rachel Alexandra was bested by Zardana, a stablemate of Zenyatta. From that point on her season was about getting her back to the 2009 form that netted her Horse of the Year honors and not about a race against her chief rival. Rachel Alexandra's struggles at the track this year are not about who was truly worthy of Horse of the Year honors from the previous year, but about the tough task of defending a championship.

Gio Ponti can be seen as another example of the demands of defending a championship, after winning the Eclipse honors for best older colt and best male turf horse he was sent back into training with the immediate goal of the Dubai World Cup and the long term goal of returning to the Breeders Cup. Gio Ponti's 2010 debut was at Tampa Bay Downs on February 20th in a listed stakes that was meant as a warm up race for the World Cup, he lost that race to Karelian who went on to capture the grade one Maker's Mark Mile. His race in the Dubai World Cup was a close fourth place finish, followed by a narrow loss to long shot stablemate Winchester in the Manhattan. He returned to the winner's circle in the Man O' War where he barely defeated 50-1 long shot Mission Approved and his last start was a narrow loss in the Arlington Million, a race he won last year. In five starts since his 2009 championship season and he has only one victory.

Forever Together won the 2008 Breeders Cup Filly and Mare Turf en route to end of the year honors as the best turf female. She is on a seven race losing streak with her last win being the Diana Handicap on August 1, 2009. Her record is ten starts with two wins since clinching the 2008 Eclipse honors.

Street Sense turned in dominant performances in the Breeders Cup Juvenile and Kentucky Derby against the likes of Curlin and Hard Spun. Curlin improved from his Derby outing against the champ to win the Preakness in a photo and from that point on Street Sense was never the same. He was all out to win the Jim Dandy and Travers before going down in defeat in his last two starts to the same three year olds he whipped in the Derby.

Zenyatta is a freak of nature, she successfully defended her Older Female award last year and is four for four this year with all of the wins being in grade one races. There have been different tactics that have been unsuccessfully used in trying to defeat Zenyatta boxing her in, floating her wide, and going extremely slow up front all come to mind. What she has accomplished in her last three years starts looking better and better when compared to how others have fared. There always have been questions about the quality of the competition she has faced, but the important factor is she has turned them all back so far.

Being a defending champion is a tough task to take on, there is new competition to take on and horses age differently. A championship campaign means that is when a horse was at their peak at the time of the honors. Duplicating those type of performances a year later with new variables is a challenge that is among one of tougher feats to accomplish in this sport.

The turning point

This is the time of the year when championships are decided. On Saturday, there are key divisional races being held including the Alabama Stakes and the Arlington Million with its support cast of the Secretariat Stakes and the Beverly D Stakes.

Alabama Stakes

After months of slow buildup and races leading to this moment there will be a winner decided, too bad this line isn't being used for Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. The Alabama has two showcase names in the three year old fillies division squaring off, Devil May Care and Blind Luck. Blind Luck should have been voted best juvenile filly of 2009 based on her dominating win in the Hollywood Starlet and Oak Leaf win, but that is last year. So far she has done little wrong in 2010 with four graded stakes wins on both synthetic and dirt, her last win she was all out to defeat Havre de Grace on a sloppy Delaware strip with a final time that bested stakes colts that ran earlier by nearly two seconds. Outside of the Derby misadventure from Devil May Care she has scored easy wins in the Coaching Club American Oaks, Mother Goose, and Bonnie Miss.

The Tomlinson pedigree figure does show something revealing about the six fillies that are entered in the Alabama and that is their lack of stamina pedigree. None of them have a figure near 320, the highest is Devil May Care with 288 (no longshot angle there). For the contrarian bettors Havre de Grace could be of interest with four works (two of which are bullets) since her last start and the pace advantage of breaking from the outside in a small field.

Arlington Million Day

Gio Ponti returns from his narrow victory in the Man O' War on July 10 to face mostly American opposition in the Arlington Million. Only three of the ten entered are making the trip from Europe to run in this race and the American runners with the exception of Gio Ponti would have a tough time against international competition, which exposes the weaknesses of the turf racing in North America. Just to drive the point across, most years all a European invader has to do is win the Breeder's Cup Turf and they win the eclipse award for best turf horse.

The Secretariat has Paddy O'Prado as its main attraction and the Beverly D could very be confused with a Grade 3 race any other weekend. If they didn't have the Secretariat, we could have had a Million that had Paddy O'Prado and a few other of the turf standouts from the three year old division in the entries. The Secretariat has worked against the Million like this in the past, in 2006 Showing up dominated his three year old rivals in the Secretariat and with The Tin Man wiring the Million field that year you could have made a case that Showing Up would have won the Million if entered for that event. Kitten's Joy won the Secretariat in 2004 and ended up dominating the competition that primarily ran in the Million later on in the Turf Classic Invitational at Belmont that October.

The Odyssey of I Want Revenge

I Want Revenge maybe running underneath the radar this weekend with all of the high class racing taking place elsewhere. This is his second start since scratching out of the 2009 Derby is the Iselin Handicap and the competition isn't going to be any easier in this round, Redding Colliery is having a very good year and is coming off a convincing score in the Lone Star Park Handicap. Chances are I Want Revenge will probably go to the Jockey Club Gold Cup from this race due to the spacing of the races. It would be nice to see a win out of I Want Revenge in this race followed by starts in the Woodward, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Breeders Cup Classic, and the Cigar Mile. If a horse was to run the table with those races at the end of the year, it would be hard to deny them Horse of the Year, just throwing that out there.

The Monmouth prep for this race was the Salvatore Mile and ended up being a very slow edition of the race in contrast to recent runnings that had Lawyer Ron lose to Gotcha Gold who set a track record time in 2007 and Coal Play a fifth of a second away from that record in 2009. This year's edition had fractions of 25, 50, 1:14, and a final time of 1:38. That is a great time for a one mile and seventy yards race, but not so much for a one mile race. Duke of Mischief and Gone Astray are coming out of this race, I don't see either taking a lot of play in the Iselin Handicap

The next three weekends are loaded with important division altering races that will have an impact on this year's Breeders Cup and it will be interesting to see how things shape up in the next few weeks.

July 10 recap

I could think of no better way to spend a Saturday than at the racetrack. Cheap admission, check; plenty of shade, check; frosty beverages on tap, check; gambling action, check. It beats going out to a Mets game by one.

Two races that I found interesting on the Belmont slate was an allowance race and the Man o' War stakes. The stakes action taking place on the eastern seaboard during the course of the day was of interest as well.

Race four at Belmont was an allowance race tha was the return race for Tahitian Warrior from his June 5 effort against Trappe Shot. His effort yesterday was impressive to me, he had to move from post seven out of eight in his last start to the rail yesterday. He rewarded his backers with an easy victory after sitting a patient rail trip and moving to the lead with ease at the top of the stretch. I'm not sure of where the connections are planning to run him next time out, but the King's Bishop seems like a spot where he could do some damage.

The results of the Man o' War could be interpreted a few ways, Gio Ponti ran a big race against an extremely slow pace and closed like a freight train. Gio Ponti could be a horse on the decline, last year in this race he would have demolished this field by open lengths. The second place finisher Mission Approved ran a monumental race in defeat running against superior competition. I am siding with Gio Ponti being 0n the decline and Mission Approved ran a monster race. Last year the Clement runner would have inhaled this competition to win by open lengths this year it took longer for him to get into gear, it happens to the best of them Cigar and Skip Away functioned on intestinal fortitude by the end of their career more than anything else. As for Mission Approved, I would be shocked if this horse does not win a stakes race before the year is out. The John's Call at Saratoga which has the condition of non-winners of a stakes race written up for it would be right up his alley, as a matter of fact the gelding ran in this race last year.The out of state stakes action was of interest too, the Summit of Speed was contested yesterday and the most impressive of the winners of the big four (the Azalea, Carry Back, Smile, and Princess Rooney) was the winner of the Azalea, Pica Slew. Pica Slew faced grade one winner Franny Freud last year and ran faster than older fillies and three year old colts on final time in her previous start. In this start she was stuck with the unenviable task of chasing a loose runner spouting off fractions of 21 and 44. The horse chasing the fast pace usually is the first victim of the fast pace, Pica Slew reeled the leader in and won easily.

D'Funnybone lost as the odds on favorite as well after setting the pace, he gave up the lead inside the 1/8 pole. Either this horse is starting show signs of fatigue after running hard in five races this year or he doesn't like running at Calder, he lost a stakes race there last year before two dominating wins at Saratoga and Belmont.

Trappe Shot won the Long Branch at Monmouth Park, the field had two scratch which reduced it to a four horse field, he ran on June 5 against the earlier mentioned Tahitian Warrior. Trappe Shot won without putting a lot of effort into the Long Branch. Southern Ridge was taken out of his normal (for his the only two races on his resume) running style by going to the lead and he did not look comfortable at all. Nacho Friend turned in his usual decent effort by finishing strong for second, but the race was over with an 1/8 of a mile left. The most likely next start out for Trappe Shot would be the Haskell seeing how the Long Branch is the traditional prep for this race. The Long Branch did not answer a lot of questions about Trappe Shot's ability to go two turns seeing how this race was an easy spot to run in.