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Originally Posted by westcoastinvader
It's an agreed in advance tainted stat, but Rachel Alexandra has been beaten in over 25% of her 15 races. She may have taken on all comers, but not necessarily successfully.
If her connections brought her to the Breeders Cup she might have moved to being beaten in 31% of her races.
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I tracked down the losing percentages for comparison with Rachel Alexandra.
Twilight Tear lost 25%. Busher lost 29%. Azeri lost 29%. Then a couple male superstars to compare to: Secretariat lost 24% and Phar Lap lost 27%. Rachel's on pace with some big names, and even if she'd lost again, well the great ones can't win 'em all and Gallorette lost 71% of her races, Makybe Diva 58%. I agree with Steve, you can't be afraid of losing. It's not indicative of a lack of greatness, and Jess should've gone with his first instinct and not even tried to make the Apple Blossom if he was that gun shy about her getting beat due to lack of readiness.
She's overcoming a lot. It's hard enough for any horse, but fillies with that kind of time on their hands could be ruined just from too much of an opportunity to think about the making of the babies.
Something I've wondered about. If Jackson thought he was going to lose the Apple Blossom (rightly or wrongly) he might not wanna give Zenyatta the chance to get within a hair's breadth of the NA earnings record held by, drumroll please, his horse Curlin. I don't blame him, it is something to consider.