It's Just Curious To Me

Jess Jackson decided to retire Rachel Alexandra a day after she worked a bullet on the Saratoga training track. That was a sparkling work, as a 48 on the training track is a 46 and change anywhere else. I know when I got my Virtual Stable notice, I thought “hmm…she’s ready to rumble.” So the only logical conclusion is that she didn’t come out of the work in good shape. I mean, a bullet is an indication that a horse is sharp, enthusiastic and sittin’on go. So perhaps something is amiss, something went wrong, maybe something’s been brewing, and the work exacerbated it…we will probably never know. It’s a tough job to keep horses sound and happy, as things can go wrong in a New York minute. 
But maybe now, finally, they are really listening to Rachel. I say finally, because what Rachel has been saying for some time now, has fallen on deaf ears.

And that's always been curious to me. 

What is true, to quote Mr. Jackson, is “it’s time to retire our champion, and reward her with a less stressful life”.


Is it just me, or maybe Rachel should have been rewarded a year ago, after her amazingly successful, yet highly stressful, very ambitious and  maybe borderline reckless, campaign? After all, Mr. Jackson, did she not reward you enough last year? Ok, maybe it made sense to give the Horse of the Year 4 months stall rest and try to bring her back as a 4 year old. But if you understood horse talk, you could hear her saying all year , “Maybe this isn’t working out like we all wanted it to... I’m  just not really feelin’ it this year”


But at least now they’re really listening to Rachel. Finally.

It’s just curious to me.