After the Triple Crown is over, it’s reasonable to believe many of the contenders over that grueling five-week period are sick of looking at each other. They probably stand in their stalls, ears pricked, hear the name “Mine That Bird,” and roll their eyes. “How many times,” you can almost hear Summer Bird say, “will I have to put up with being called Bird #2?” But it seems the road to the Breeders’ Cup will offer forked roads for some goal-oriented contenders.
The boys can at least breathe a sigh of relief they won’t be pitted against Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra in their next start. Unsatisfied with merely knocking around the colts, the champion filly is now returning to her own gender to remind them who’s queen of the division. Perhaps she heard that Gabby’s Golden Gal, a filly she stomped in the Oaks, making her cry all the way back to the barn, beat Justwhistledixie in the Grade I Acorn in Rachel’s absence. Dixie had previously been considered Rachel’s biggest adversary before she was scratched the morning of the Kentucky Oaks. Now that Jess Jackson has announced Rachel’s next start will be in the Grade I Mother Goose Stakes, it’s perceivable the fillies once targeted toward that race will pick up their dolls and find somewhere else to play.
As for the boys, their summer season will pick up the first weekend of August. Mine That Bird is veering off the well-beaten path to the Travers, the summer Derby, opting to run in the $750,000 West Virginia Derby. This decision was made by trainer Chip Wooley because it “fit their schedule best,” but as the Grade II Jim Dandy is on the same day at Saratoga, one might wonder if Chip is taking the gelding into softer competition to build his confidence. After putting in three big performances during the Triple Crown, this move makes sense from a training standpoint.
Instead, the Jim Dandy is the target for at least one Triple Crown contender, Charitable Man, who faded to fourth in the Belmont after his impressive Peter Pan victory. The Jim Dandy would make sense to serve as a major leap forward for this capable colt, except it may be the targeted comeback race for the newly-healed Quality Road. After winning the Florida Derby in a scintillating victory over Dunkirk, Quality Road was well on his way to being the favorite in the Kentucky Derby, but had to bow out of contention when his quarter cracks kept him from training.
In an interesting development, Quality Road most recently was transferred from regular trainer Jimmy Jerkins’s barn to Todd Pletcher’s, the trainer of the now-recuperating Dunkirk. Pletcher may target Road to the Haskell Invitational instead of the Jim Dandy on his road to the Travers; his path hasn’t been yet cemented. One horse that is definitely Haskell-bound is Belmont winner Summer Bird. If Quality Road returns to racing in the same form in which he displayed in the Florida Derby, Summer Bird better watch out. Quality Road has yet to let a horse pass him once he takes the lead in the stretch, and won’t be tolerant of any late-running foes.
As for who will be entering the Grade I Travers, the climax of the summer looks to be a virtual “greatest hits” list of Triple Crown contenders, though Rachel’s start following the Mother Goose hasn’t yet been hinted at. Mine That Bird, Summer Bird, Quality Road, and Charitable Man are all targeted toward this historic race won by such legends as Man o’ War, Native Dancer, and Buckpasser. As her sire, Medaglia d’Oro won the Travers in 2002, wouldn’t it be fitting if Rachel Alexandra was entered to defend her daddy’s honor?
As for who will enter the Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 7, you can almost bet each of these horses have that race penciled in their calendar as the ultimate goal. The only wavering factor is whether or not the connections will want to try their dirt horses over the synthetics for the first time. Mine That Bird is a sure go, since he won four races in a row at Woodbine and has figured out his running style. But don’t expect Charitable Man to head West, since his only poor performance was in the Blue Grass Stakes, where he finished out of the money for the first time. And though she’s won over Keeneland’s wonky Polytrack, Jess Jackson has commented the only time Rachel Alexandra will race over the “plastic” will be if she’s going in the Classic, not the Ladies’ Classic. That means the potential show-down with the undefeated Zenyatta may never happen if the California mare doesn’t venture outside her familiar stomping grounds.
But stay tuned; you never know what might happen, because the sport of horse racing is a lot like a daytime TV drama: you never know who’s going to knock heads with whom, or which main player might suddenly steal the spotlight from the reigning divas or leading “men.”
Tentative Calendar of Major 3-year-old Players
Grade I Mother Goose Stakes – June 27 : Rachel Alexandra
Grade III West Virginia Derby August 1 : Mine That Bird
Grade II Jim Dandy – August 1 : Charitable Man, Quality Road (undecided)
Grade I Haskell – August 2 : Summer Bird, Quality Road (undecided)
Grade I Travers – August 29: Summer Bird, Quality Road, Mine That Bird, Charitable Man
Grade I Breeders’ Cup Classic – November 7: Mine That Bird, ?