AN OPEN LETTER

Dear Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss:

Gentlemen, you are both very, very lucky people. And I think you know that. You two are so fortunate to be the owners of two extraordinary Thoroughbred ladies. I am sure that I am far from alone when I say that I would not hesitate to trade places with either of you in a heartbeat so that I could own either Rachel Alexandra or Zenyatta.

So, let’s see. How shall I put this? For emphasis, permit me to put this in capital letters:

WOULD YOU TWO GENTLEMEN PLEASE FIND A WAY FOR THE REST OF US WHO LOVE HORSE RACING TO SEE RACHEL ALEXANDRA AND ZENYATTA COMPETE AGAINST EACH OTHER?

We have sent men to the moon, right? Surely putting Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta in the same starting gate is not more difficult than that.

What? One “please” isn’t enough?

Okay, then. How about this? What if I say to you, Mr. Jackson, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please?

And what if I say to you, Mr. Moss, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please, please?

That happens to be one “please” for each victory so far by Rachel Alexandra (9) and Zenyatta (11).

Part of the frustration being felt by many racing fans is the emotional roller coaster ride we’ve been on. For instance, Mr. Moss, after what you said immediately after last Saturday’s Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, hopes soared that the dream of seeing Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta run against each other might come true. You said of Zenyatta, “I think we want to do something a little more challenging.” I was right there when your trainer, John Sherriffs, said after the Vanity that he thought there was a “great” chance that Zenyatta would run against Rachel Alexandra. People came away from the Vanity with the distinct impression that Zenyatta was not locked into remaining in California for the rest of the year and might go to New York before the Breeders’ Cup.

But then, Mr. Moss, just two days later, the hopes of thousands were dashed when you said in a an interview with The Blood-Horse’s Lenny Shulman that it was “unlikely” you would ship Zenyatta out of California to run against Rachel Alexandra before the Breeders’ Cup. According to that story, you “shot down the notion” of running Zenyatta at Saratoga or Belmont Park before the Breeders’ Cup.

So, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, after getting our hopes up, we again are being told that it is “unlikely” that Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta are going to meet. And gentlemen, if this never happens, I believe it will be one of the biggest disappointments in the history of racing in this country.

Each week I vote in the NTRA national poll. A couple of weeks ago, Gary West of The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote that it was “embarrassing” for Zenyatta to be No. 1 and Rachel Alexandra to be No. 2 on the June 15 poll.

After West wrote that, it appears that somebody responded to West’s lobbying because Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta swapped spots on June 22 poll.

This week, Rachel Alexandra again is No. 1, with 10 first-place votes. Zenyatta again is No. 2, with eight first-place votes. Zenyatta received my vote for No. 1. The only other two horses receiving first-place votes were Well Armed (two) and Einstein (one). It’s one thing to vote for Rachel Alexandra or Zenyetta. But I don’t understand those votes for Well Armed, who is zero for two in the U.S. this year. Well Armed won the Dubai World Cup by a record 14 lengths. I would vote for him if this were a Dubai poll. But it isn’t.

Anyway, look, I admit that when I saw Rachel Alexandra’s performance in last Saturday’s Mother Goose, I could not help having second and third and fourth thoughts about voting for Zenyatta over Rachel Alexandra.

I watched the Mother Goose as well as I could despite considerable glare from the summer sun on a television monitor at Hollywood Park about 20 to 25 paces from the paddock where Zenyatta was being saddled.

From where I was standing, I could see both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. The problem was, while I could see Zenyatta in the flesh, Rachel Alexandra was on a small television screen, running at a track 2,825 miles away. This is exactly what has thousands of racing fans so frustrated.

Now I know that only two other fillies ran against Rachel Alexandra in the Mother Goose. And I honestly have no idea why those two other fillies, Malibu Prayer and Flashing, were out there dueling with each other early at a rapid pace (:22.57, :44.66, 1:08.86). Well, actually, I do know what those two fillies were doing. They were running each other into the ground. I haven’t seen tactics that bizarre since last year’s Melbourne Cup.

Three European horses from Aiden O’Brien’s powerful Ballydole yard -- Septimus, Honolulu and Alessandro Volta -- headed the foreign contingent in the 2008 Melbourne Cup. In the early stages of the two-mile race, O’Brien’s three starters raced first, second and third.

“Each ridden by an Irish jockey, they wrestled for the lead at a breakneck pace -- a suicidal pace, in fact,” Ric Chapman wrote in The Blood-Horse. “They seemed to treat the Australian horses with contempt and went so hard the three led the rest of the field by six lengths as they passed the halfway point.”

As I watched the race from my seat at the Flemington Racecourse, I thought it was one of the dumbest things I had ever seen in a major race. It was obvious that all three O’Brien horses were going far too fast too early to have any chance to win a two-mile race. Understandably, all three horses ran out of gas. Septimus finished 18th and reportedly pulled up lame. Alessandro Volta ended up 20th. Honolulu finished 21st and also reportedly pulled up lame.

Malibu Prayer and Flashing had their Mother Goose cooked by a combination of the suicidal early splits and the presence of the remarkable Rachel Alexandra. Nearly matching her 20 1/4-length margin when victorious in the Kentucky Oaks, Rachel won the Mother Goose by 19 1/4 lengths.

Twice this year Rachel Alexandra has done her very best to make us all fondly recall Secretariat’s Belmont Stakes win by 31 hysterical lengths, as the great Charles Hatton described it.

Now, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, I know some may consider it sacrilegious to mention Rachel Alexandra and Secretariat in the same sentence. But to those people I say let’s examine the final time of Rachel’s Mother Goose and Secretariat’s Marlboro Cup.

I dug out my old Marlboro Cup program to refresh my memory as to who else besides Secretariat started in the Marlboro Cup. No, I was not at Belmont Park that day. That official program was a gift.

Here is what’s on the front page of the official program:

Belmont Park

The Marlboro Cup

Thoroughbred Race of the Year

September 15, 1973

As I open the program and look through it, I see that the sixth race that day was the $100,000 added Beldame Stakes. I remember that Desert Vixen ran a big race to defeat the likes of Susan’s Girl and Convenience.

The $250,000 Marlboro Cup was the seventh race. The eighth was a 1 1/16-mile allowance race. Guess who was in that race? Forego. He won it, too. Forego would go on to run in the Marlboro Cup in 1974, 1975 and 1976. He finished third in 1974, second in 1975 and won it under a staggering 137 pounds in 1976 in a performance for the ages.

Anyway, getting back to the 1973 Marlboro Cup, here was the field as listed in the program:

1 COUGAR 2ND

1A KENNEDY ROAD

2 RIVA RIDGE

2B SECRETARIAT

3 KEY TO THE MINT

4 ONION

5 ANNIHILATE ’EM

(On a personal note, when Penny Chenery -- whose married name was Penny Tweedy when Riva Ridge and Secretariat were racing -- once visited Santa Anita, she kindly agreed to an interview with me for the track’s simulcast network. After the interview, I asked her if she would sign my Marlboro Cup program, which I made sure to have with me. This is what she wrote:

To Jon – a real fan

Penny Tweedy

By the way, she underlined the word “real.”)

Well, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, Secretariat, a 3-year-old running against older rivals, won that 1973 Marlboro Cup. Secretariat had just finished second to Onion in the Whitney Stakes, one of the biggest upsets in the history of Saratoga.

Of the 1973 Marlboro Cup, Hatton wrote in the American Racing Manual,:

“In the Marlboro, Secretariat looped most of the field, roaring past the older champions Riva Ridge, Cougar II, Kennedy Road and Key to the Mint like the Super Chief passing a hobo jungle. And in world-record time. This was a handicap and Secretariat conceded weight on the scale. In passing, he took his revenge on Onion.”

Ah, yes, for you who think I’m crazy to mention Rachel Alexandra and Secretariat in the same sentence, let’s take a look at that world-record time for 1 1/8 miles in the Marlboro Cup. After leading by two lengths at the eighth pole while posting a mile fraction of 1:33, making it the second- fastest mile ever run at Belmont Park at that time, Secretariat completed his 1 1/8-mile journey in 1:45 2/5 to win by 3 1/2 lengths. Riva Ridge finished second. Cougar II ended up third, two lengths behind Riva Ridge.

Secretariat’s 1:45 2/5 clocking shaved three-fifths of a second off Pink Pigeon’s world record set on Santa Anita’s turf course in 1969. The 1:45 2/5 clocking shattered the Belmont Park track record of 1:46 1/5 set by Canonero II in 1972.

No horse in the world has ever come close to Secretariat’s 2:24 clocking for 1 1/2 miles on the dirt. That track record at Belmont Park probably will never be broken.

But Secretariat’s track record of 1:45 2/5 for 1 1/8 miles at Belmont Park also has never been broken. Last Saturday, Rachel Alexandra did not tie or break that record, but she took a pretty darn good run at it.

Rachel Alexandra was “under wraps” during the last part of the Mother Goose, yet her final time for 1 1/8 miles was only four-fifths of a second off Secretariat’s track mark.

What’s nice about this, too -- and I am sure, Mr. Jackson, you will appreciate this -- we are not comparing the time of a race on the dirt to a race on a synthetic surface. Secretariat’s 1:45 2/5 was achieved on Belmont Park dirt. Rachel Alexandra’s time of 1:46 1/5 was recorded over that very same dirt track. Rachel’s clocking broke the stakes record established by Lakeway in 1994.

According to the folks at Churchill Downs, when Rachel Alexandra won the Kentucky Oaks by 20 1/4 lengths, it was the biggest margin of victory in the history of the race. Rachel’s Mother Goose margin also was the biggest by a winner in the history of that race.

When Ruffian won the Mother Goose in 1974, she did so by 13 1/2 lengths in 1:47 4/5. This means that Rachel Alexandra won the same race by a much bigger margin and in much faster time than Ruffian.

So how in the world can I still vote for Zenyatta at No. 1? Rachel Alexandra certainly doesn’t make it easy, but just 19 minutes after the Mother Goose, Zenyatta counterpunched by winning the Vanity Handicap by 2 1/2 lengths in 1:48.

Yes, Zenyatta won by “only” 2 1/2 lengths. And, yes, her time of 1:48 was not close to Rachel Alexandra’s 1:46 1/5.

But all Zenyatta does is win…and win…and win…and win. She’s now 11 for 11. Not only that, in the Vanity, Zenyatta did something quite rare these days. She carried 129 pounds.

Mr. Moss, I salute you and your trainer for accepting the 129 pounds with class rather than whining and threatening not to run. Complaining about a weight like 129 pounds has become as traditional as mint juleps at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May.

Martin Panza has been assigning weights for handicap races at Hollywood Park since becoming the racing secretary there in 1994. Before Zenyatta’s 129, the highest weight Panza had ever handed anyone was 127 pounds when 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri won the Vanity in 2003.

Mr. Moss, I like what your trainer said when asked about the 129 pounds:

“Obviously, everybody would like less weight,” Sherriffs said, “and we would’ve liked 128. But I felt Martin was fair in his weight assignment. Zenyatta is a champion. That’s what champions do. You can’t run from it. Embrace it.”

Zenyatta turned a 2 1/2-length deficit with a furlong to go into a 2 1/2-length victory. To do that while packing 129 pounds certainly is easier said than done.

Personal Ensign, who was perfect in 13 career starts, never carried more than 127 pounds. Only two Vanity winners -- Silver Spoon (130 pounds in 1960) and Gamely (131 pounds in 1968) -- have ever won the Vanity under more weight than Zenyatta’s 129 pounds.

Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, I don’t know what the atmosphere was like at Belmont Park for the Mother Goose, but the presence of Zenyatta before and after the Vanity had fans so stirred up it was sort of like a political rally. There were a number of homemade signs visible, including one that said: “Zenyatta for Governor.” Another sign said: “Bo Derek a Perfect 10, Zenyatta a Perfect 11.”

Mr. Moss, it was really neat when your wife, Ann, seemingly caught up in the emotion of the moment after yet another Zenyatta victory, invited a couple of the sign holders to join the winner’s circle ceremony.

As Zenyatta jogged back under Mike Smith and all that weight, the big mare received a rousing ovation.

Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, I can only imagine what it would be like if Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta were to run against each other. Gentlemen, you both have said numerous times how much you love racing. And I appreciate that your first responsibility is to determine what is in the best interest of Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. I get that. But, and again permit me to put this in capital letters, I DON’T THINK THERE IS ANYTHING YOU TWO COULD EVER DO IN YOUR ENTIRE LIVES TO MAKE RACING FANS HAPPIER THAN TO FIND A WAY TO PUT RACHEL ALEXANDRA AND ZENYATTA IN THE SAME STARTING GATE.

On the front page of the 1973 Marlboro Cup program, it was called the “Thoroughbred Race of the Year.”

I have to believe that Rachel Alexandra vs. Zenyatta would have the same cachet.

If only movie star Don Ameche were still alive. Maybe he could do what he did in 1955.

“I helped put together the match race between Swaps and Nashua,” Ameche told me years ago as we sat on a bench outside trainer Gary Jones’ stable office. At the time, Jones was training a horse for Ameche.

According to Ameche, he acted as an intermediary and passed along a message to Nashua’s owner, William Woodward Jr., at a fancy restaurant in New York one evening. Ameche told Woodward that owner Rex Ellsworth would be willing to run Swaps against Nashua in a match race. Ellsworth was eager to prove Swaps’ 1 1/2-length win over Nashua in the Kentucky Derby was not a fluke.

When Woodward showed he was receptive to the idea, Ameche contacted Ben Lindheimer, owner of Washington Park and Arlington Park (and father of Marje Everett, who later would run Hollywood Park). Lindheimer put up $100,000 for a 1 1/4-mile winner-take-all match race that was held at Arlington Park on Aug. 31, 1955.

In the book “Thoroughbred Champions: The Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century,” Kimberly Herbert wrote that Swaps worked one mile at Arlington Park on a wet track in 1:35 the day before the match race. No, that’s not a mistake. The day before the match race against Nashua, Swaps worked one mile in a time faster than most races of that era. Indeed, that 1:35 clocking tied the Arlington Park track record set by Equipoise in 1932.

In the match race, Eddie Arcaro, who rode Nashua, employed the same “catch me if you can” strategy that had worked so beautifully for George Woolf in Seabiscuit’s win in his 1938 match race with War Admiral. Nashua led from the start, defeating Swaps by 6 1/2 lengths. In a 1995 story, Bill Christine wrote in the Los Angeles Times that an estimated 50 million watched the match race on CBS.

Some said that Swaps re-injured a foot in his workout the day before the match race. Others have said that Swaps re-injured the foot during the match race itself. His supporters felt that due to the foot problem, Swaps was not 100% in the match race.

Others felt Arcaro had given a younger Bill Shoemaker on Swaps a riding lesson. In the book “The History of Thoroughbred Racing in America,” William H.P. Robertson wrote: “Rounding the turn for home, while Swaps still was in pursuit, Arcaro took Nashua off the rail, just enough to provide a tempting hole of questionable width on the inside, and far enough out to make it difficult to go around; it wasn’t exactly ‘herding,’ which is illegal, but it presented maximum discouragement to his rival.

“In the froth that followed, it was maintained by his admirers that Swaps was not himself during the match. From the opposite camp came the observations that, whoever he was, it was a pretty good colt that ran with Nashua as far as he did.”

Christine wrote: “Shoemaker told his biographer, Barney Nagler, that before the race, [trainer Mesh] Tenney called Harry Silbert, Shoemaker’s agent. The trainer told Silbert about Swaps’ bad foot, but asked him not to tell Shoemaker.”

Tenney was said to have been concerned about Shoemaker pulling up Swaps if the rider knew about the bad foot. But Shoemaker, according to the Christine story, “sensed something was wrong” while warming up Swaps.

“I felt that his action wasn’t right,” Shoemaker said, “but I thought it was because the track was muddy in spots.”

The match race was held on a drying out track that was officially termed “good.” The track had been listed as “slow” earlier in the day.

Whether or not Swaps was at his best for the match race, he did not race again in 1955. He returned in 1956 to win eight of 10 starts and the Horse of the Year title. Nashua was voted 1955 Horse of the Year.

On The Blood-Horse’s list of the Top 100 Racehorses of the 20th Century, Swaps ranked No. 20, with Nashua at No. 24.

Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, the fans got their wish in 1938 when Seabiscuit ran against War Admiral and in 1955 when Nashua ran against Swaps. In 2008, a lot of us wanted to see Big Brown and Curlin clash. But it never happened. Now it’s 2009 and thousands of us would dearly love to see Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta run against each other.

The majority of match races are won in wire-to-wire fashion, as was the case in the victories by Seabiscuit and Nashua. Thus, Zenyatta’s come-from-behind style certainly is not conducive to a match race.

So, with a match race making no sense, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, here is what this “real” fan of the sport would like to see. I propose, Mr. Moss, that you reconsider and run Zenyatta in Belmont Park’s Beldame Stakes at 1 1/8 miles on Oct. 3. Mr. Jackson, I propose that you put that race on Rachel Alexandra’s agenda.

Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, can you imagine the incredible excitement if, tomorrow, you were to announce that you planned to run your extraordinary female Thoroughbreds against each other in the Beldame? Mr. Moss, you talk about the importance of the Breeders’ Cup. But I assure you that the entire Breeders’ Cup would take a back seat to a Beldame showdown between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta.

This is not a perfect world. The perfect situation for Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta to meet may not exist. But the Beldame, it seems to me, is the best choice to see them run against each other. The conditions are right in that the Beldame is not a handicap race. It’s also a good distance for both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. Rachel Alexandra is two for two at 1 1/8 miles, winning by 20 1/4 and 19 1/4 lengths. Zenyatta is three for three at 1 1/8 miles, including a triumph despite being burdened with 129 pounds. Plus, the Beldame is run on good old-fashioned dirt. Shirreffs believes (and I agree) that probably Zenyatta’s best race so far came on the dirt when she won the 2008 Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park by 4 1/2 lengths over a field that included 2007 Eclipse Award winner Ginger Punch.

So, Mr. Jackson and Mr. Moss, I will wrap up this long open letter by again saying to you both, I hope that you will give us the race everybody wants. It’s up to you.

Sincerely,

Jon White

END