For The Record...

[TGJB]

...and for the records.  

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2010/09/29/rachel-explanation-needed.aspx

[smalltimer]

Again, kudos to Rachel on a great 3 year old season and a deserving recepient as HOY.  I\'m glad she appears to be sound as she heads into retirement.  

My opinion on her retirement after a couple of really nice works is this:  I feel her camp questioned if she could win the Distaff, and obviously did not believe Rachel could win the Classic. Period.  

I think they probably felt running Rachel in the Distaff would be an admission that she couldn\'t win the Classic.  Could you imagine the questions they would face in the run up to the BC?  Why not the Classic?  Are you afraid of her facing Quality Road or Zenyatta?  Those questions would have been painful for them to answer and still maintain the slightest bit of integrity.  Unfortunate, that great \"sportsman\" Jackson didn\'t give Rachel the chance.  It must have been less about sportsmanship and more about winning all along.
 
It\'s a shame when running in and possibly winning the Classic is the measuring stick for Rachel, or any other horse. After Zenyatta this year, how many years now until we see another great female try the boys in the Classic?

No doubt the year end goal for her initially would have been to arrive healthy and on top of her game to take on the world in the Classic.  Things just did not go as they planned, so I think they are taking the easier way out. By BC Distaff day, Rachel will have been forgotten by much of the horseracing public.  What a shame ending her career on such a sour note.

Just my opinion

[TGJB]

It\'s hard to know without knowing the physical, but your analysis of the connections\' thinking may be correct-- which is too bad, because some of us disagreed with their handicapping (a real, real lot). Personally, if there wasn\'t a problem, I think they had nothing to lose by running in the FM race-- they could have said they didn\'t want to run her at 1 1/4, and invited Zenyatta to run against her there. If Zenyatta went in the Classic and didn\'t finish 1-2, and RA won the FM race, RA would get the FM Eclipse. Which ain\'t gonna happen now no matter what. So, nothing to lose-- except ego.

It seems to me that both camps-- this year, as opposed to last for RA-- wanted things their own way. Coupla very rich guys used to getting what they want, and what they want is not to lose to the other guy. So everybody else and the sport lose instead.

Again, the bearing out on the first turn is something to consider, and I\'m not talking about ground loss. RA may have a problem. But if it\'s something she has been dealing with, and which didn\'t get worse, the right approach would be to train up to the BC-- as I say at the seminar every year, unsound horses tend to run well fresh. If it\'s worse than that they should have said so.