Rachel Smokes Mother Goose

For a brief second, it looked like Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra might be in for a tough race, but on the far turn jockey Calvin Borel asked his filly for run and with an explosive move she quickly opened up for an authoritative 19 1/4-length win in the Grade 1, $300,000 Mother Goose.

The Steve Asmussen-trained daughter of Medaglia d’Oro shattered two Mother Goose records – the margin of victory and final time, 1:46.33. The previous record for time was held by Lakeway (1994, 1:46.40) and the margin belonged to the great Ruffian (13 ½ lengths, 1975).

In front of a crowd of 13,352, Malibu Prayer and Flashing dueled through torrid fractions of :22.57 for the quarter and :44.66 for the half while Rachel Alexandra waited patiently three lengths off the lead. As the field moved around the far turn, Borel called on his filly, split horses and made the lead at the top of the stretch. Then under minimal urging from Borel, the bay filly rolled to the easy victory.

“I can’t say enough about Calvin Borel’s ride,” said Asmussen, who saw his star filly pay $2.10 for the $2 win. “They took it right to her with 44 and change, the 1/9 shot, and all the pressure in the world. He just let them go about their business and did what’s best for her and he needs to keep doing that.”

Rachel Alexandra’s record now stands at 9-2-0 in 12 career starts and has rattled off seven straight victories, all stakes races. Her career earnings now stand at $1,798,354.

“She's a racehorse, this is a racehorse,” Borel said. “Believe me, she's not normal, I'm telling you, she's unbelievable. I nudged (her) on the turn for home around the quarter pole but that was it. To make sure she'd get something out of it and do something for me. She is, I don’t know, like a Secretariat or a Seattle Slew. I’ve never been on one like that in my life. ”

Malibu Prayer finished second and Flashing was third. With the late scratches of Don’t Forget Gil and Hopeful Image, it left a field of three.