BALTIMORE — This must be one special filly.
Rachel Alexandra is adding a dose of girl power to Saturday’s Preakness Stakes, taking on a field of 12 colts for the first time in her 3-year-old life.
The tall, rangy filly has inspired uncommon faith from her owners, unusual loyalty from her jockey and early backing from the race’s oddsmaker, all while carrying the hopes of a fading industry desperately seeking a star.
Her mere entry in the Preakness is a surprise. Fillies don’t usually take on colts at the top level of racing because the boys are typically bigger, faster and stronger, and Rachel Alexandra’s new owners — who purchased her just last week — had to pay $100,000 above the entry fee because she wasn’t nominated to any of the Triple Crown races. Her previous owners had expected her to compete strictly against her own gender.
But she has clobbered the other girls. And she’s larger than Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.
“I think the fans deserve to see the best horses compete, regardless of sex,” co-owner Jess Jackson said Wednesday. “This isn’t about male or female, it’s about the best athletes.”
Rachel Alexandra has won five consecutive races by a combined 43 1/2 lengths, virtually lapping the field and drawing comparisons to legendary fillies Ruffian and Winning Colors.
Now she’s trying to achieve a feat unmatched since 1924, when Nellie Morse was the last of four fillies to win the 134- year-old Preakness.
Only 10 have tried since then, the last being Excellent Meeting in 1999. She was pulled up by the jockey as a precaution and didn’t finish the race.
In 1980, Kentucky Derby winner Genuine Risk finished second in the Preakness, and in 1988, Winning Colors followed up her Derby win with a third place in the Preakness. Winning Colors was the last filly to run as the race favorite, at 2-1 odds.
“She has the appetite and the skill to compete,” Jackson said. “We don’t know how good she is, so we’re trying to define her.”
On Wednesday, Pimlico oddsmaker Frank Carulli made Rachel Alexandra the 8-5 morning-line favorite after a field of 13 was entered. The filly drew the far outside No. 13 post position.
“It’s beautiful. She’s going to be able to get position,” said Scott Blasi, an assistant to her trainer, Steve Asmussen.
D. Wayne Lukas, the Hall of Fame trainer who saddled Winning Colors, said he believes Rachel Alexandra is a perfect candidate to take on the boys. He cited her dominance of fellow females, front-running style and pedigree that suggests she can handle the 1 3/16-mile distance.
“She is definitely the one to beat,” Lukas said.
Jockey Calvin Borel elected to stay on as the filly’s regular rider for the Preakness, dumping his mount on Mine That Bird — a virtually unheard of move.
Borel said simply: “She’s a once-in-a-lifetime horse.”
