Jess Jackson is the owner of the local Kendall-Jackson
vineyard and a number of other vineyards and wineries in both California and
Europe. He was recently in the news spotlight when he bought the thoroughbred
racehorse Rachel Alexandra. This 3 year-old bay filly is a streak of lightning
on the racetrack and recently overcame a group of exceptional fillies at the
Kentucky Oaks race and won by 20 1/4 lengths.
Why wasn’t she entered in the Kentucky Derby? Because her
owners, Dolphus Morrison and Michael Lauffer, doubted she could compete against a field of top
male thoroughbreds.
Enter Jess Jackson and his partner Harold T. McCormick.
They stepped up with a rumored $8 million to $10 million to buy Rachel
Alexandra. They took her lead shank and led her off to new adventures.
Jackson has a group of thoroughbred farms near Lexington,
Ky., called Stonestreet Farms (which is his middle
name). The horse is now under the excellent training of Steve Asmussen, who brought Jackson’s stallion Curlin to national prominence. But more about this later.
In the meantime, another scenario began: A horse trainer
in New Mexico named Chip Woollery loaded a horse
named Mine That Bird into a horse trailer behind his pick-up truck and set out
for Kentucky. It was not an easy trip, as he had broken some bones in his foot
and was on crutches. But the horse had actually qualified for the Kentucky
Derby and this opportunity was not to be missed.
The horse’s owners, Mark Allen and veterinarian Dr. Ken Blach, had been watching Mine That Bird ever since he was
sold as a yearling at a Fasig-Tipton sale in Kentucky
for $9,500. As he matured, his speed had increased considerably, and they ended
up buying him for $400,000. He was not a large horse, only 15.1 hands tall (but
neither was Seabiscuit).
Allen and Blach had had a nice
piece of luck in securing an excellent jockey named Calvin Borel.
However, no one had ever heard of Mine That Bird before, and at Derby race
time, his odds were 50-1.
As the horses broke from the starting gate, Bird was at
the back of the pack and hung there for some time. Then something strange
started to happen. He began snaking up along the rail, passing horse after
horse until he was actually out in front of a field of 18 other top
thoroughbred race horses by five or six lengths. The horse nobody had ever
heard of won the 2009 Kentucky Derby.
His jockey, Calvin Borel is
such fun to watch when he has a big win. He talks to his parents up in heaven.
He thanks God, and just exudes joy and gratitude. He’s an endearing character.
Now Mine That Bird was in position to try for the second jewel in the Triple
Crown, which was the up-coming Preakness.
“We couldn’t really see Mine That Bird as he was moving
up on the rail,” said Dr. Doug Herthel, who was there at the Derby. “It was not
until he passed Pioneer of the Nile, who was in the lead, that we realized what
was happening. It was an absolutely historic race and the best partnership of
horse and rider ever.”
In the meantime, Jess Jackson decided that he just had to
see if Rachel Alexandra could outrun the boys at the upcoming Preakness at Pimlico Race Course. Pimlico had
been scheduled to close. But it’s a valuable part of Maryland’s history and had
been saved by a special act of legislation.
This race had always been dominated by 3-year-old colts.
In fact, a filly had not won at Pimlico for 85 years.
And it had been 103 years since a filly had won as the favorite. Jackson was
unfazed. Calvin Borel had ridden her in her
spectacular win of more than 20 lengths at the Kentucky Oaks race. Borel told the press that she was the best horse he had
ever ridden.
Now Dr. Blach and Mark Allen
were without their Derby winning jockey. Luckily, they were able to secure the
very talented jockey Mike Smith, who carefully studied the gelding’s
idiosyncrasies and was ready for the challenge.
On race day, Rachel Alexandra was the 2-1 favorite. But
she drew the 13th position in the starting gate. “Ooooooh,”
people said, “That’s a bad omen. Horses don’t win the Preakness from the 13th
hole.”
But off they went, and she took a favorable place near
the front. Once again, Mine That Bird hung back.
Then he started to make his move up the inside on the
rail, but the other jocks were watching for him. He had a hard time getting
through. In fact, Smith said that D. Wayne Lukas’s horse, Flying Pirate, bumped
him twice.
But Bird was not finished, he went around the outside,
and at the finish line he had almost caught the filly. That little detour
probably cost him the race. But it settled the question of whether Mine That
Bird’s win at the Kentucky Derby had been just a fluke.
This is quite a horse.
Borel,
who has won the Kentucky Derby twice in the last three years, said Rachel
Alexandra had run very hard and was tired at the end.
“I was concerned that she was overheated,” he said, and
he could be seen pouring bottled water over her head as he rode her to the
victory circle.
“I wish it had been a dead heat,” Russell Drake told me.
“They are both such remarkable horses.” Russell is the manager of River Edge
Farm in Buellton, and he spends a lot of time in Kentucky. He has 50 or 60
horses at Lane’s End Farm, and its stallion, After Market, stands at stud
there.
The trainer is Steve Asmussen,
who brought Jess Jackson’s horse, Curlin, into
national prominence when he won the Preakness and was also named Horse of the
Year in 2007.
“He has probably won more money than any other horse in
North America because the purses have kept rising,” Russell said. “It’s well
over $10 million. He stands at Lane’s End, and his stud fee is $75,000.”
Jackson reportedly bought Rachel Alexandra with the hope
of breeding a “super horse” with Curlin as the sire.
So the excitement will go on and on. But the next challenge is on June 6, at
the Belmont, in Elmont, NY. It has a track with different conditions: It will
be a longer race at a mile and a half, with wide sweeping turns.
If Jackson enters Rachel Alexandra to run against Mine
That Bird, the entire sporting world will be on hand to watch the Belmont.