Photo: NYRA/Adam Conglianese
The Mother Goose is a race
that had two great record setting performances in 1975 and 2009. Let’s take a
look at this year’s Mother Goose results and then go back in history and enjoy
the amazing races of Ruffian and Rachel Alexandra.
The 2012 Mother Goose appeared to be a black and
white kind of race that was easy to figure with Bob Baffert’s Contested going off as a heavy 1-2
favorite and Larry Jones’s Believe You Can a very solid 5-2 second choice.
However the result was nothing but grey, as the grey filly Zo Impressive battled another grey Disposablepleasure down to the
wire.
Zo Impressive won the
battle of the greys by three quarters of a length to pay $14.60, $6.60, $10.00 as the
heavy show bettors took a beating.
Zo Impressive took down her first stakes victory in the $300,000 Mother Goose (G1). Tom Albertrani, who trained the Hard
Spun filly for Live Oak Plantation, said after the race, “Going
into the race, she was very sharp. I loved the draw for her being on the
outside. We wanted to be in a position where we
could eyeball Contested and everything
worked out just the way we expected it to.” Albertrani added that they would
head to Saratoga and consider the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) on July 21st.
Jockey Rajiv Rajiv Maragh described the race, “It was a good run going to the three eighths pole so I
think I had horse left. Once I
could hold her (Disposablepleasure) off at the eighth pole I felt like I was
going to keep on going.”
The 1975 Mother Goose was
contested at Aqueduct and featured Ruffian
who was going for her ninth victory in her first nine career starts. It would
turn out to be just another one of Ruffian’s dominating performances. She would beat the field of seven by a
record 13 and a half lengths in a stakes record time of 1:47-4.
The 2009 Mother Goose featured
Rachel Alexandra and only had a
field of three horses in what was to be the last time that the race would be
run at a mile and an eighth. After the other two horses set some dazzling early
fractions of :22-2 and :44-3 Rachel Alexandra pounced and took the lead.
Belmont racecaller Tom Durkin was beside himself with excitement as he
described Rachel as, “Pouring it on in a dazzling display”. At the wire Rachel had opened a 19¼
length margin which broke Ruffian’s record margin and she set a stakes record
time of 1:46.33.