Cox trio are top contenders in Rachel Alexandra Stakes

Calling the Rachel Alexandra Stakes a “Kentucky Oaks prep” is more than verbiage. Five times in the last 10 years, the Oaks winner ran in the Rachel Alexandra, and given the relatively barren divisional landscape this year, there’s a solid chance it happens again.

Among seven entrants Saturday at Fair Grounds in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra, five fillies appear plausible Oaks players. Brad Cox trains three of them – Alpine Princess, West Omaha, and Tarifa.

Cox confirmed that West Omaha could be scratched in favor of a Feb. 24 start in the $400,000 Honeybee at Oaklawn Park. If she runs Saturday, she rates a solid chance in the Rachel Alexandra, a 105-point Oaks qualifier (50-25-15-10-5 to the first five finishers), though West Omaha might only be Cox’s third best hope in this 1 1/16-mile contest.

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The other key players are Intricate, who makes her first start since a spicy score in the Grade 2 Golden Rod last November, and V V’s Dream, who still must demonstrate she can hit her peak racing around two turns.

Among the others in the field, grinder Perfect Shot, a distant second in the Silverbulletday, has a better chance to hit the board than Pennick, but Pennick, the likely pacesetter, has a better chance at posting an upset.

Alpine Princess lost her lone graded stakes start, the Grade 1 Alcibiades, by nearly 30 lengths, but Cox believes the filly left her race in the starting gate, where she acted up and reared just before the stall doors sprang. Alpine Princess cleared the maiden ranks in her second start, a seven-furlong Saratoga maiden of no great consequence, and rebounded from the Alcibiades winning a first-level route allowance at Churchill Downs, stalking the pace and coming between horses. She turned in her best performance Dec. 23 in the Untapable at Fair Grounds, making the lead after stumbling slightly at the start, then setting a moderate pace en route to a comfortable two-length score over West Omaha.

Alpine Princess has been at the track without a break since last spring yet might only now be blossoming. She dusted Risen Star Stakes starter Catching Freedom in her major Rachel Alexandra work on Feb. 3, galloping out with aplomb and looking like a filly who had filled out and grown more confident since the Untapable.

“She’s always been a solid work horse, but I think she has improved,” Cox said. “To see her look the way she does physically, I think she’s set for a big effort.”

West Omaha is a taller, lankier horse than Alpine Princess, long legs flying as she runs with a somewhat high head carriage. She looked better in the Silverbulletday than in the Untapable, and Cox said that based on her recent work, West Omaha can improve again.

Tarifa might have greater upside than her stablemates. She followed a six-length debut win over an extended seven furlongs at Keeneland with a flat fourth in a Churchill Downs one-turn mile allowance race. But Cox removed blinkers for Tarifa’s two-turn debut Jan. 20, where she made an inside run from just off the pace to wear down Standoutsensation, who had set a slow tempo and wasn’t stopping. Flavien Prat rides Tarifa as her previous pilot, Florent Geroux, sticks with Alpine Princess.

The Cox horses are good; Intricate might be better.

A modest fifth sprinting in her debut, Intricate returned to capture two route races, including the Nov. 25 Golden Rod, where she traveled beautifully from the start and made the most of a perfect ground-saving trip. Splitting horses in upper stretch, Intricate, very much stamped by her sire, Gun Runner, drew clear to a 5 1/4-length win, punctuated by a powerhouse gallop-out.

Trainer Brendan Walsh, who won the 2023 Kentucky Oaks with Rachel Alexandra winner Pretty Mischievous, gave Intricate a quiet December before ramping up in January, and Intricate has been working like a tiger, easily besting the fast older horse Banishing in a Feb. 3 drill.

“She wasn’t a very good worker last year but seems to be working much better. I think she’s matured. She’s got more substance,” Walsh said.

V V’s Dream also has breezed sharply. The daughter of crack sprinter Mitole peaked last year in the Pocahontas, a one-turn mile. In the two-turn Alcibiades, V V’s Dream got a perfect trip pressing a slow pace but was unable to kick home with victorious Candied. Twenty-three days later, she was a distant third in the two-turn Rags to Riches, her most recent race, though trainer Kenny McPeek remains bullish on the filly’s route potential.

Pennick is 2 for 2, most recently a sharp 5 1/2-furlong allowance winner Jan. 26 at Fair Grounds. Her gallop-out that day was excellent, and Pennick, a daughter of Hard Spun, has displayed stamina in morning work.

“I think she’ll go long. It’s a question mark,” trainer Gary Scherer said.

The Rachel Alexandra could answer many questions, including who might be a leading candidate to win the Oaks.

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