Ten Things You Should Know: Rachel Alexandra Stakes
By Kevin Martin, Hello Race Fans Contributing Editor
Originally published on February 17, 2011
1) The Rachel Alexandra Stakes is run at Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. This year’s edition is part of the Kentucky Oaks qualifying system with points being awarded to the top four finishers.
2) The race is restricted to 3-year-old fillies and is currently a Grade 2. It is run over the distance of 1 1/16 miles on the dirt.
3) When the race was run for the first time in 1982, it was named for Davona Dale, the Hall of Fame mare who won the Triple Tiara (the filly triple crown) in 1979 as well as that year’s Kentucky Oaks.
4) In 2006, Hurricane Katrina forced the closure of the Fair Grounds. That year’s edition of the race (along with other Fair Grounds winter stakes races) was held at Louisiana Downs in Bossier City.
5) The race is a prep for the Fair Grounds Oaks, a Grade 2 race run in March and a major prep for the Kentucky Oaks, a major race for 3-year-old fillies run the day before the Kentucky Derby at Churchill Downs.
6) Five winners of the Rachel Alexandra went on to win the Kentucky Oaks: Tiffany Lass (1986), Blushing K.D. (1997), Silverbulletday (1999), Summerly (2005), and Untapable (2014).
7) Twenty three winners went on to finish in the top three of the Fair Grounds Oaks, including eleven fillies who won both. I’m A Chatterbox swept both races in 2015 before finishing third in the Kentucky Oaks.
8) In 2000, 2-year-old filly champ Chilukki finished second in her 3-year-old debut in the last edition of the race run under the name Davona Dale.
9) In 2001, the race was re-named for Silverbulletday, the two-time Eclipse winner who won the race in 1999 when it was still the Davona Dale. She also won the Fair Grounds and Kentucky Oaks that year.
10) The 2011 edition was first time the race was run as the Rachel Alexandra Stakes. Rachel Alexandra won the Fair Grounds Oaks during her 2009 Horse of the Year campaign.
10A) And while the Rachal Alexandra Stakes replaces the Silverbulletday on the FG Stakes calendar, the Silverbulletday has not gone away but is now run in Jan as the 1st, 2 turn Stakes race for 3YO fillies as a prep to the FG Oaks. This Jan prep has been run from 1992-2010 as the Tiffany Lass Stakes. But Tiffeny Lass is not has not gone away and a 6f race named for her for was added this year and took place in early Feb.
What has gone away was the New Orleans Ladies Stakes, which was a Stakes race written last year for Rachal who was to use it as a prep to the Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn. I think everyone remembers what happened there and the NO Ladies did not return for the ’10-’11 Meet.
I hope that’s not too confusing!
BrooklynSaint: Now THAT is some good knowledge! Thanks for the contribution. Kevin