Positive Spirit to Open Season in Rachel Alexandra

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 (nine are expected to start) in 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).

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. 

Also entered is grade 1 winner Chasing Yesterday, who had been the 5-2 morning-line favorite but Fair Grounds said Feb. 12 that the half sister to 2015 Triple Crown winner American Pharoah  will not be shipped to Fair Grounds for the race

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).

Entries: Rachel Alexandra S. (G2)

Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots, Saturday, February 16, 2019, Race 11

• Grade II
• 1 1/16m
• Dirt
• $200,000
• 3 yo Fillies
• 5:29 PM (local)

PP	Horse	Jockey	Wgt	Trainer	M/L
1	1Molto Bella (KY)	Julien R. Leparoux	122	Ian R. Wilkes	10/1
2	2Street Band (KY)	Sophie Doyle	122	J. Larry Jones	20/1
3	3Serengeti Empress (KY)	James Graham	122	Thomas M. Amoss	6/1
4	4Positive Spirit (KY)	Manuel Franco	122	Rodolphe Brisset	5/1
5	5Liora (KY)	Channing Hill	122	Wayne M. Catalano	12/1
6	6Oxy Lady (KY)	Adam Beschizza	122	Jack Sisterson	6/1
7	7Bell's the One (KY)	Florent Geroux	122	Neil L. Pessin	8/1
8	8Eres Tu (KY)	Ricardo Santana, Jr.	122	Steven M. Asmussen	12/1
9	9Needs Supervision (KY)	Joseph Rocco, Jr.	122	Jeremiah O'Dwyer	5/1
10	10Chasing Yesterday (KY)	Drayden Van Dyke	122	Bob Baffert	5/2