What's up with Rachel?

Lately, there seems to be a lot of questions surrounding our dear Rachel.

Up until La Troienne, the internet was covered with articles about Rachel Alexandra: her schooling, her workouts, her preparations for the next race, down to details as to whether or not she is eating all her meals. Now? -- Hardly anything. Why is it that suddenly there is markedly less published about last year's horse of the year? Now this is the Horse of the Year, folks -- the one who broke all sorts of records last year, the one many have compared with Ruffian. Sure she lost a few races, but I find it odd that lately she is almost totally ignored.

Now newer puzzling developments are unfolding...

In the first workout after La Troienne, the usual exercise rider Dominic Terry was surprisingly absent. Instead, jockey Shaun Bridgmohan rode Rachel during her Monday morning workout. Later it was revealed that Dominic Terry was let go, and has since been hired by Dallas Stewart. Some speculate that this change was because he, as the exercise rider, was responsible for making sure Rachel is accustomed to changing leads immediately after the final turn, which she noticeably failed to to do in La Troienne, an error that some have blamed for her loss. Nobody knows for sure why Dominic Terry is no longer riding Rachel because there has been nothing publicly stated. That's fine, but ...

Shaun Bridgmohan is from Jamaica

Who is this Shaun Bridgmohan? Yes, he is a jockey, and was the the winner of the Eclipse Award for Outstanding Apprentice Jockey in 1998. He is a moderately successful jockey, twice winning 6 races on a single card, and winning several well known races including the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2002, the Pimlico Special in 2008, and the Cigar Mile Handicap in 2009. But why is he on Rachel now? Is he just the new exercise rider for Rachel or is he more than that? There may be speculation that he will be the new jockey for Rachel. This speculation is most likely untrue. On one hand, Asmussen and Bridgmohan have had a long history together, and Asmussen has used Bridgmohan on more and more of his horses. But on the other hand, I would imagine that Asmussen would prefer a higher profile jockey such as Robby Albarado (over Bridgmohan) for such a high profile horse as Rachel. Also, it's unlikely Jess Jackson, with the money and flash that he has, would allow anyone other than a high profile - high caliber jockey (such as Calvin) to ride Rachel.

Also, curiouser and curiouser are the times posted for Rachel Alexandra's workouts. In her first workout after La Troienne, she clocked a tepid 0:52 (DRF) or 0:50 (Churchill). Now which one is it: 0:50 or 0:52? Why is there such a big discrepancy between the DRF clockers and the Churchill Downs clockers? Are these people even awake? Two seconds is a huge difference, especially clocking racehorses when accuracy is so important that time is traditionally calculated down to a fifth of a second. In her second workout this past week, she clocked five furlongs in a lukewarm 1:04.20 over a sloppy track. Remember that Rachel loves the slop so it came as a surprise she was that slow. In fact she ranked 12th out of 13 horses at that distance. I looked at the statistics for the other horses, and she was actually tied for last with another horse. Did Asmussen change his training technique? Or the unthinkable -- is there something physically (or emotionally) wrong with our dear Rachel? Let's hope not. Hopefully she's happy and healthy.

So far Rachel's going-ons is shrouded in mystery. If you follow Rachel closely like I do, you might be just as frustrated as I am! We hope we can get some answers soon.