{"id":3535,"date":"2010-03-13T20:50:23","date_gmt":"2010-03-14T01:50:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=3535"},"modified":"2010-03-13T20:59:08","modified_gmt":"2010-03-14T01:59:08","slug":"iron-maiden-zenyatta-wins-again-rachel-alexandra-goes-down-in-defeat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=3535","title":{"rendered":"Iron maiden Zenyatta wins again; Rachel Alexandra goes down in defeat"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Zenyatta added another win to her unblemished record with a one-length victory today in the G1, $250,000 Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita, while arch rival Rachel Alexandra was upset by Zenyatta’s stablemate Zardana, in the $200,000 New Orleans Ladies at the Fair Grounds.<\/p>\n

“I’m just disappointed she didn’t win today,” said Steve Asmussen<\/a>, the trainer responsible for Rachel Alexandra’s 2009 career that saw her crowned Horse of the Year<\/a>. “It was lack in fitness. It’s our job to have her there and I didn’t do it.”<\/p>\n

Asmussen went on to express his concern about starting Rachel Alexandra in the April 9 G1 Apple Blossom <\/a>at Oaklawn, which has guaranteed a $5 million purse if both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta compete in the race.<\/p>\n

“If I thought she’d get beat, I wouldn’t have run her today,” said Asmussen. “So I’m definitely going to be cautious.”<\/p>\n

Rachel Alexandra, racing for the first time in more than six months, battled Zardana, a 9-1 shot, through the stretch and was beaten by a head.<\/p>\n

Zardana’s trainer, John Shirreffs, was absent from the Fair Grounds winner’s circle, because he was at Santa Anita Park, where he saddling Zenyatta for the Margarita, her 15th consecutive win in a perfect career record, and her first race since she won the GI, $5 million Breeders\u2019 Cup Classic <\/a>at Santa Anita on November 7.<\/p>\n

Both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta were 1-9 favorites today. Zenyatta is considered by many to be the best horse racing in the world today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zenyatta added another win to her unblemished record with a one-length victory today in the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3535"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3538,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3535\/revisions\/3538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}