Mother Goose Stakes G1

This week saw the two best mares in North America continuing their dominance. Rachel Alexandra demolished two outclassed runners in the Mother Goose G1 while on the west coast Zenyatta gave away weight and toyed with another outclassed field. It's interesting to note that both of these great mares are out of slow mares. Rachel Alexandra's dam, Lotta Kim by Roar has a 1.88 racing index compared to Rachel's 48.80. Actually Rachel Alexandra's index is much higher, it just hasn't been updated. It was 48.80 when she won the Kentucky Oaks and doesn't take into consideration her Preakness and Mother Goose victories. Zenyatta with an index of 82.30 is out of Vertigineux by Kris S. whose index is 3.96. Both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta are true champions and their dams are typical of what you can expect to see from mares that produce champions. They were sound enough to race and win, but they were no great shakes as racemares. On the other hand this week we also see the dam of the winner of the Cornhusker Handicap G2 is champion Mom's Command winner of the Triple Tiara with a racing index of 53.47. Her son Jonesboro who won the Cornhusker has a racing index 10.95 even though he has won $1,383,500. Mom's Command bred down 80% from her own racing index and although Jonesboro has won over $1,000,000 he is not even close to being a horse of championship caliber having won that amount during 6 racing seasons. Another salient point. Jonesboro was one of Mom's Commands last foals, produced when she was almost 20. Great racemares will often produce their best foals later in life after their bodies have recuperated from the stress of a hard racing career. We aren't going to gain great insight in a few weeks but over a longer period of time a pattern will begin to emerge.

Race...............................winner................index...........................dam.......................index
Vanity H. Zenyatta 82.30 Vertigineux 3.96
Mother Goose S. Rachel Alexandra 48.80 Lotta Kim 1.88
King Edward C. Rahy's Attorney 20.79 Rahy's Hope .65
First Flight H Porte Boneur 12.18 Sous Entendu 2.00
Beverly Hills H Black Mamba 20.81 Sneetch 10.00
Cornhusker H Jonesboro 10.95 Mom's Command 53.47
Colonial Turf C. Battle of Hastings 26.45 Subya 6.00

Another interesting point to consider is that Black Mamba's dam and Battle of Hasting's dam were grass runners which are much more likely to produce high indexed runners then their contemporaries which raced on dirt.