While one has to concede that entering Rachel in the Preakness would heighten interest in Preakness to maybe a heavyweight championship level, the risk one
runs, if anything happens to her, is goodnight racing.

Remember, last year's Congressional hearing was basically a whitewash, predicated on the notion that the easiest way to avoid an efficient hearing is to conduct an inefficient one. There will be no cover this time. The public will be outraged.

And for good reason. JB has, year in year out, documented the toll Triple Crown races take on horses. Now you're advocating entering a fillie against colts off a monster new top on two weeks rest.

It's such a recipe for disaster that I will say this: if Rachel runs in the Preakness and anything bad to her happens. her connections should be held criminally liable for animal abuse.

Which is not to say she can't win the race; she is truly a magnificent horse. Still, she is a fillie running against colts. And on the dirt. In Europe fillies run against colts all the time, on the turf. And even in America it's not all that unusual for distaffers to beat males on the turf. But dirt racing is more demanding on the animals; forces them to dig deeper, to ignore more pain. The irony being, the more of a champion a horse is the deeper it will dig, the more it digs the likelier it injures itself.

Because (and this is central to understanding horses racing) horses are basically pack animals. Whose dominance in the wild is manifested by who leads the pack. Horses instinctively will run themselves into the ground for a moment of glory. Think here of the horse dropping to a 32,000 claimer with no recent form who makes the bold move and gets up at the wire. Visually, he looks like a lock to win next out at 32,000 again, but probably he'll be seeing 14,000 claimers before he sees the winning circle again. This because he cashed in his class coupons in the 32,000 race he won. That was the day he could be dominant and he willingly paid the physical price for being so. Such is the nature of the horse.

Which brings us back to Rachel running in the Preakness. In what should be a very demanding race for her (if only because of the spacing) she is going to give it her all. She is a champion, she is going to dig as deep as she can. And she will willingly compromise her well being to lead the pack home. She will not pull herself up, or slow down, if she feels herself weakening. She will try to persevere. And because she's running against colts she will have to dig that much deeper. And she will dig, Dig, dig, dig, until maybe, courage tested to the breaking point, something snaps.

And then, the crocodile tears. Listen, horses don't have the ability to protect themselves, humans must protect them. A responsibility which, surprisingly enough, requires some horse sense. The connections want to run Rachel in the Belmont, fine. Run her in the Preakness, on two weeks rest, off a monster new top,against the colts, you're playing Russian Roulette with the horse's life.

And this time there will be no forgiveness.