At 6:20 a.m., with the Belmont Park backstretch roosters screeching madly, Rachel Alexandra walks up the ramp onto the Sallee horse van and is promptly shuttled north to Saratoga Springs. Among other things, her Saratoga trunk was packed with her own personal stall gate, and riding along with her on the 200-mile journey were the stable pony, assistant trainer Scott Blasi and his 13-year-old son, Blaine.
A little more than three hours pass, and Blasi reports by cell phone that Rachel has come out of her record-setting victory in the Mother Goose in fine fashion and is safely ensconced in her summer residence, which happens to be Curlin's former stall, right next to Blasi's office in trainer Steve Asmussen's barn near the Oklahoma Training Track at Saratoga Race Course.
"The weather is beautiful, nice and cool and sunny," says Blasi. "She's about to have her lunch and then she's going to take a nap. And, she's right next to me, which is great."
Blasi, like most everyone else, gets kind of dreamy-eyed when he talks about Rachel. He calls her powerful and feminine; professional and elegant; competitive and confident.
"She struts when she walks," he says, "kinda like a supermodel."
More importantly, she runs like a champion, and while Asmussen declines to speculate, who can resist dreaming about Saratoga and a Shadwell Travers matching the Kentucky Derby winner, Mine That Bird, Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird, and Rachel Alexandra? Or how about a Shadwell Travers featuring Mine That Bird and Summer Bird on Aug 29 and the very next day, having the Personal Ensign be the first meeting between Rachel and her West coast counterpart, the undefeated Zenyatta?
Can't hardly wait!
