2009 Kentucky Oaks 

😡 I still get emotional. My son was born in 8 and my daughter was born in 10, it made me a big softy then and I still get emotional watching this now. A silly horse in a silly race and here I am tearing up in 2023.

Absolutely

I really smiled with joy reading your post,such passion. From one horse / race fan to next don't mention any horse in the same breath with GODS HORSE. SECRETARIAT would make all of these look like donkeys . It's just not fair. For the record His crowns records still stand and any horse who dares to smell them will die on the track... 9 furlongs was a joke to him 1:45 secs. On the other on Rachael was better than the rest on the list at 9 furlongs and under any given day!

I’m so Happy somebody remembered GO FOR WAND such a talented Mare. Tragically breaking down in the Breeders Cup race

@@kellyshahan2550 yes it was I cried that day when it happened

She won at six different tracks I belive as a 3 year old no horse including Zenyatta could of beat her it was special to watch her race with such grace her 3 year old campaign doesn't get enough praise it deserves it will years from now dirt real racing surfaces not synthetic.

She saw those girls and said byeee!

He has an incredible way with words- Tom Durkin is the 🐐

And he calls her “AlexanDER”.

Love the “sitting chilly”

That would've been awesome but SHE DIDN'T NEED MAN, TO MAKE HER MARK QUEEN 🐎

Nope there is a reason even Calvin said he was glad they didn't run her in the derby. The boys are rougher in the pack and bigger. Do I think speed wise she could have beat all them yes I do.. but running a filly against the boys for the first time in the Derby. Not worth it at all not in a 20 horse field.

No 50t0.1 is great

@@samshatto3671 That's true. However, Calvin chose Rachel in the Preakness, over Mine That Bird. who'm he just won the Derby on. Rachel from the outside in the Preakness... she ran her style race, speed.

@@MDK3192 oooh yeah he knew she was the better horse or he wouldnt it have rode her. Just saying 20 horse field isn't the time to test a filly against males does part of me really wish they would have tested her before the derby and been more confident to put her in there yes I think she could have had a legit shot at the win

Preakness 2008, Big Brown My 2 favorites, unbelievable horses!

Looking back, she really is. And Zenyatta is the best mare. How blessed we were to see them running at the same time. I’m kind of glad they never raced each other to cement their legacies as they were both beyond spectacular.

+Anna M Foster I think Durkin might have gotten it right once during the race.

He called her name 6 times correctly, 3 times....oh well...

He also called Gabby's Golden Gal, Gabby's Golden Girl when he first commented. Not his best effort.

Gold jacket, green jack, who gives a shti - Nitpicking... oblivious to the greatness 😅

Durkin's calls of the 2009 Oaks and Derby were nothing short of horrible 🤦‍♂️ Rachel Alexandra and Mine That Bird deserved better. I miss Chic Anderson. RIP

I loved Rachel Alexandra, and predicted she would end up a Hall of Famer when she won the Kentucky Oaks. It is VERY unlikely she would have done well in the Kentucky Derby (or in the Breeders' Cup Classic). She was a middle distance horse, her best distance was 9 furlongs. She never won at a mile and a quarter. Rachel was lucky to hang on to her Preakness win over a fast closing Mine That Bird at 1 3/16 mile. She lost her only race at 1 1/4 miles, the Personal Ensign at Saratoga, to a filly named Persistently; that was Persistently's sole G1 win. (Persistently did have several placements at that level. Plus Rachel was not the same racehorse at 4 that she had been at 3.) Persistently's time of 2:04:49 for the Personal Ensign was the slowest for that stakes while run at the 10 furlong distance. And you'd have to go back to 1974 for a slower Travers time for the same distance on the same track.

She was done after the Woodward Stakes win to end her 3 year old season. I was at that race and the Personal Ensign the following year and you hit the nail on the head. She was still very good at 4, but nowhere close to the same as she was at 3. This dominant performance, a similar one in the Mother Goose (where no one even showed up because they knew they were running for 2nd), beat the Derby winner in the Preakness, the Belmont winner in the Haskell and older male horses just for good measure to cap it off. We'll never see a 3 year old filly have a season like that again.

julie hertz Very well said I agree. I'm sure Ruffian, Go for wand, Secretariat were running with her to the finish line

Great horses.. I LOVE Terlingua....I think she's my fav filly...

Bayakoa won 2 breeders cups, Personal Ensign retired undefeated and won grade 1 against the boys including beating Kentucky Derby winner. Not sure Songbird belongs above these.

julie hertz Terlingua great mare as well mother of the great sire Storm Cat.

Songbird?...Stop...How about Go for Wand?

See my answer to CobraMyster_gaming. Ten furlongs -- much less 12 -- was beyond her best distance.

But then no Mine That Bird

She barely hung on to win the Preakness by a length. You don't know she would have won the KY derby against a horse she beat by a length in a shorter race. RA was considered for the Belmont but pulled from consideration. IF Rags to Riches is the benchmark for the very best filly to win the Belmont, RA fails since even Summer Birds 2:27 Belmont was a second faster than Ragz and the 7th fastest Belmont in the past 20 years up until 2009

Rachel blew Summer Bird's doors off later that summer in the Haskell. Granted it was a much shorter race and I don't disagree that 12 furlongs was probably outside of her ability, but I think she could've been a contender in the Derby that year. Calvin rode so much better at Churchill than anywhere else, she ran well in a few races at that track and she was at her best when she rated and stalked. If Calvin could've settled her that year, she would've been there at the end as that Derby did not have a crazy fast pace (I think the opening 1/2 was 47 and change).

Because great fillies don’t come a long very often, but it seems like there’s a great colt every year, and all the great colts are considered as could’ve been better bc they’re racing against the historic performances of the likes of Secretariat, Man O’ War, Citation etc.

IUSEDTI WATCHzenyatta ron

You're right she was even better....

112 Beyer

To say zen wouldnt have caught her is crazy. Zenyatta always fires and closes. She would have been full force as rachel was galloping away from these other mules. Would have been a great race but zen just knows what to do to catch ya at the wire

I feel fairly sure that it'd be a race worth watching. This was fun, but Zenyatta won the Breeder's Cup, and many other mixed races. I'd put my $ on her

@@karaamundson3964 Rachel ran Faster...Had Higher Numbers...Also had the Pace/Speed advantage...Rachel also Spent a lot of her career in Open company and against the Males...Just dont see anything at all that would favor Zenyatta

@@joechrow8341 quarter horses run faster than thoroughbreds. You're only using some of the data points. We'll never know the "mighta" because the race never happened.

@@karaamundson3964 Faster meaning her Final times of Races were Faster than Zenyattas...Rachels Numbers were also Superior to Zenyattas...All of the data and numbers favor Rachel

when you had the kind of campaign she had at 3..beat OLDER HORSES at 3,,a FILLY?did you hear her jockey damn near crying talking about her after the race? She was just as good..and I loved zenyatta but you gotta give rachel her respect

@@lagosfury5142 I don’t take anything from Rachel! She was a great filly. The reason I think Zenyatta was the best that I’ve ever seen is because of how she could spot horses like quality road and others 30 lengths and still run by them all in the stretch!! It takes a very special filly/mare to do that. And you could argue that the fields Rachel faced wasn’t as talented as Zenyatta’s fields? Especially the 2010 breeders cup classic! 💯

@@ChrisB-vb9hh agree with most of what your saying,its very hard to win consistently as a deep closer..and she should probably be a 2 time BC champ as well...but the one knock on her is...she never shipped and that has to be a slight knock on her

@@lagosfury5142 you could put Zenyatta anywhere and she’s going to fire!! I have no doubt that in a match race going 1 1/8 or further Rachel would of got beat 5 out of 5!

@@lagosfury5142 and one thing that I forgot to mention is that Steve Asmussen was her trainer and I think we all know what he’s been suspended for multiple times!! I’m not saying she was on steroids but there’s a good chance considering her connections!

No that's Tom Durkin.

I believe deep down she could’ve won all three The Derby. The Preakness where she won and The Belmont. She’ll always have a special place in my heart 💜💜

Trump voters have brains...Hillary supporters try and undo elections...and encourage violations of the Espionage Act.

@@rachelalexandra9818 And try to influence elections through fear, by inciting violence ( the mob)..❤️🙏🇺🇸

I *unhesitatingly* rank Rachel over Songbird, as well. But Songbird was a great horse in her own right, and as a 3-yr-old challenged the older, great Beholder. Songbird is one of the best 3-yr-old filles of recent decades, and she is a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame with that gaudy 15:13-2-0 record. (Which on the face of it is better than Rachel's record, although of course Rachel had a far more challenging career.) I don't mind her being listed with Rachel.

@@marysueeasteregg Songbird and Beholder throwing down from the 1/4 pole, home was a grrreat race. Fortunately I was on the right side, ( I always backed Beholder) as in 2 yrs. Before, (would have against American Pharoah ) 1 yr. Between. Great racehorses all..

@@chrispafrieddreams9118 That Beholder didn't make Pharoah's BCC is pretty high on my list of "wish I could have seen it" races.