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It's A Boy! Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra Gives Birth to First Foal

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The usually moribund month of January in racing is annually brightened by the arrival of new foals, conceived the prior February and delivered in the first month of the new year. 2012 is no exception…except, well, yeah, it is, because two days ago, Rachel Alexandra delivered her first foal, a strapping baby boy of 125 pounds. Immediate reports noted that he was on his feet an hour and a half after delivery.

Rachel Alexandra was the 2009 Horse of the Year, the first female so named since Azeri in 2002 and just the seventh to capture that title since 1936, when official voting for Horse of the Year was established. En route to that honor, she made history, becoming the first filly to win the Preakness since Nellie Morse in 1924; only the second filly to ever win the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park; and the first filly to win the Woodward Handicap. She was the first 3-year-old filly to beat older males on the track since Busher in 1945.

She won the love of the public as few horses have in recent memory; her races brought people to the track in their thousands, crowds populated both by those in awe of her racing ability and those charmed by a female so dominating the racing landscape. Little girls showed up at the track with “Girl Power!” signs. Her distinctive face made her instantly recognizable.

During her racing days, Rachel Alexandra was owned by Stonestreet Stables and Harold McCormick, the former the name under which Jess Jackson, he of Kendall-Jackson wines, and his wife, Barbara Banke raced. Jackson died last April, but Stonestreet Stables carries on under the stewardship of Banke, in the breeding shed and on the race track. The new foal is co-owned by Stonestreet and McCormick.

The little bay represents a dream that Jackson didn’t live to see. He adored his championship filly; “I am amazed at her beauty and her speed,” he said after she won the Mother Goose at Belmont Park in July of 2009.  And in an attempt to pass on Rachel Alexandra’s singular ability, he bred her to his other Horse of the Year, Curlin, who won racing’s highest award in 2007 and 2008, earning along the way more than $10 million, more than any other horse in racing history.

Curlin, too, won the Preakness, in 2007, after finishing third in the Kentucky Derby and before finishing second by a head to another sensational filly, Rags to Riches in the Belmont. He won the Jockey Club Gold Cup in 2007 and 2008, the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2007, and the Dubai World Cup in 2008.

With a pedigree like that, this little guy is what we in racing call “regally bred.”

And when his birth was announced late Sunday, the racing Twitterverse and blogosphere and Facebook world lit up, with well wishes and suggested names and plans for the 2015 Kentucky Derby.  The royal offspring of Will and Kate will not be more enthusiastically and warmly welcomed than was this first foal of two Horses of the Year.

Speculation began, too, about what the hours-old colt might bring at auction as a yearling in 2013 --  flights of fancy for so many reasons, not the least of which is that it's hard to believe that he'll ever belong to anyone but Stonestreet.

In the unlikely event that he does appear in an auction ring, he won't do so as unobtrusively as Curlin, who sold at auction as a yearling for a mere $57,000 (Jackson was one of a team that purchased him later for $3.5 million). Rachel Alexandra never sold at auction; her breeder, Dolphus Morrison, raced her himself until her win in the Kentucky Oaks, after which she was sold to Jackson and McCormick for an undisclosed amount in the hefty millions of dollars.

At his birth, the bay colt, offspring of those who made millions for many, carries more weight, the weight of aspiration, than he ever will with a jockey on his back. Nearly 30,000 Thoroughbred foals are born every year; only a fraction of those will make it to the races, and only 20 will start in the Kentucky Derby. This one took his first steps on Sunday night, but he’s got a long, long way to go.

For now, though, the fact that he’s here is enough for the legions of Rachel Alexandra’s fans, and for the people who bred her.  “This colt,” said Banke in a statement announcing his birth, “represents Jess’ dream – to raise and race the best.”

Cheers, little guy, and welcome to the world.