Chasing Yesterday Starts Season in Rachel Alexandra
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Photo: Gary Tasich
Chasing Yesterday trains at Santa Anita
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots' Rachel Alexandra Stakes may have grade 2 status, but this year's cast looks like a grade 1 line-up. Ten 3-year-old fillies are entered for the $200,000 race going 1 1/16 miles, part of a stakes-stacked program Feb. 16 headed by the Risen Star Stakes Presented by Lemarque Ford (G2).
The filly on the outside, Jane Lyon's Summer Wind Equine's Chasing Yesterday, figures to get most of the attention. At morning-line odds of 5-2, expect that price to be shorter at the first flash. Trainer Bob Baffert ships the chestnut filly from his Southern California base in search of his third win in the race. His other two were champions Silverbulletday (1999) and Indian Blessing (2008).
Chasing Yesterday carries some swagger as a half sister to 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah by three-time leading sire Tapit . She already is a grade 1 winner, outlasting Enaya Alrabb in the Dec. 8 Starlet Stakes at Los Alamitos. Enaya Alrabb finished a close second to grade 1 winner Bellafina last weekend in Santa Anita Park's Las Virgenes Stakes (G2).
Chasing Yesterday, who has two other stakes wins, also brings a nice string of works to New Orleans. Drayden Van Dyke, her regular rider, ships in as well.
Having faced just four, three, and five rivals in her past three respective starts, Chasing Yesterday will have to maneuver through some traffic and some serious foes in the Rachel Alexandra.
Mike Ryan's Positive Spirit was positively devastating last time out, winning Aqueduct's nine-furlong Demoiselle Stakes (G2) by 10 1/2 lengths. The daughter of Pioneerof the Nile —the sire of American Pharoah—ships to Louisiana from Payson Park for trainer Rodolphe Brisset. She carries her own pedigree credentials as a half sister to 2017 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (G1) winner Always Dreaming .
Fillies with a lap around the track merit a closer look. Coffeepot Stables' Liora, winner of Churchill Downs' Golden Rod Stakes (G2) last fall was fourth behind Needs Supervison and Eres Tu in the Jan. 19 Silverbulletday Stakes. The frontrunning Candy Ride filly should offer stiffer resistance in her second start on the year.
Needs Supervision, by Paynter , was sharp in the Silverbulletday for trainer Jeremiah O'Dwyer. She brings a three-race win streak from four starts to the Rachel Alexandra for Gary Barber, Wachtel Stable, Madaket Stables, and Howling Pigeon Farms.
"She's done nothing but improve," O'Dwyer said. "She's bringing me on a heck of a ride. She's not a big imposing filly but she's not small either. She's just very pretty and very efficient like a ballerina. I wouldn't swap her for anything else in the country. Maybe it's sentimental because I had her and picked her out at the sale and got to develop her myself. She's something special."
Bred by Mike Abraham, breeder of 2018 champion older male Accelerate , Needs Supervison was a $55,000 purchase by O'Dwyer at the last year's Fasig-Tipton Midlantic sale.
Edward Seltzer and Beverly Anderson's Eres Tu closed from fourth for second in the Silverbulletday. The daughter of Malibu Moon closed from eighth to break her maiden earlier in her career, so the added distance from the mile and 70-yard prep figures in her favor.
Lothenbach Stables' Bell's the One took the local Letellier Memorial Stakes Dec. 22 at six furlongs to make her record 3-for-3. Getting the added distance of the Rachel Alexandra is the question here for trainer Neil Pessin.
Joel Politi's Serengeti Empress ended a five-race campaign at 2 with a seventh-place finish in the Tito's Handmade Vodka Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1), and also won back-to-back stakes in Kentucky by a combined 33 lengths.
Trainer Tom Amoss reports the daughter of Alternation is doing well.
"This is her first race off the bench. We've given her some time because she had a sizable campaign at 2," Amoss said. "I expect her to make a good showing, but at the same time, this is our first race back and it's not our end-all race. It's important to understand that she'll improve off this race. Goal is a couple of months down the road."
An end goal for now is the May 3 Longines Kentucky Oaks (G1). The Rachel Alexandra is the first in the Road to the Kentucky Oaks qualifying series to offer a scale of 50-20-10-5 points to the top four finishers toward entry in the Oaks.
The Rachel Alexandra has been a key race over the last few years in unveiling some top 3-year-old fillies. Recent winners include Untapable (2014), I'm a Chatterbox (2015), Farrell (2017), and Monomoy Girl (2018).
Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, February 16, 2019, Race 11Entries: Rachel Alexandra S. (G2)
PP
Horse
Jockey
Wgt
Trainer
M/L
1
Molto Bella (KY)
Julien R. Leparoux
122
Ian R. Wilkes
-
2
Street Band (KY)
Sophie Doyle
122
J. Larry Jones
-
3
Serengeti Empress (KY)
James Graham
122
Thomas M. Amoss
-
4
Positive Spirit (KY)
Manuel Franco
122
Rodolphe Brisset
-
5
Liora (KY)
Channing Hill
122
Wayne M. Catalano
-
6
Oxy Lady (KY)
Adam Beschizza
122
Jack Sisterson
-
7
Bell's the One (KY)
Florent Geroux
122
Neil L. Pessin
-
8
Eres Tu (KY)
Ricardo Santana, Jr.
122
Steven M. Asmussen
-
9
Needs Supervision (KY)
Joseph Rocco, Jr.
122
Jeremiah O'Dwyer
-
10
Chasing Yesterday (KY)
Drayden Van Dyke
122
Bob Baffert
-
