Fair Grounds: Untapable blows away Rachel Alexandra foes

NEW ORLEANS – On paper, the best of the seven 3-year-old fillies in the Rachel Alexandra Stakes clumped together, their relative merits difficult to separate. On the track? It wasn’t even close.

Untapable, making her first start at age 3, and rebounding from a pair of subpar performances in California, blew the Grade 3, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra open at the top of the stretch, pushing to the lead under Rosie Napravnik with a four-wide move into the homestretch and going on to a 9 1/2-length victory.

Untapable won her maiden at first asking last summer and the Grade 2 Pocahontas Stakes in her second start, but she basically was eased in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and was a decent but one-paced third Dec. 7 in the Hollywood Starlet before taking up winter quarters at Fair Grounds.

“She acted extremely well today,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “We knew she was a better mare this year.”

Asmussen called the BC Juvenile Fillies, in which Untapable was beaten almost 70 lengths, “a catastrophe,” and didn’t believe the filly was at her best racing over the synthetic surface at Hollywood Park in the Hollywood Starlet. Asmussen gave her a brief breather after she arrived in New Orleans and started breezing Untapable again in mid-January.

“Her works here have been extremely impressive,” he said.

Streaming, the 3-2 favorite, and Army alternated for the early lead through sensible fractions of 24.01 for the first quarter-mile and 47.91 for the opening half, but both faded badly in the homestretch, with Streaming last and Army home sixth. Untapable, meanwhile, stayed in the clear on the outside, stalking the leaders and biding her time, and when Napravnik asked her for run, Untapable delivered, opening up easily and running alone through the stretch.

Her winning time of 1:43.64 for 1 1/16 miles over a fast track was excellent, and Untapable ($10.80) should be a major player in the March 29 Fair Grounds Oaks, her intended next start. Untapable is a daughter of Tapit bred and owned by Winchell Thoroughbreds. Winchell and Asmussen won the Southwest Stakes this past Monday with the impressive Tapiture.

Got Lucky, who lacked any semblance of early positional speed, rallied mildly to edge Shanon Nicole for second. Ria Antonia finished fourth, and Express Model was fifth.

Got Lucky, jockey Mike Smith said, was “a little lethargic early,” while jockey Joe Talamo reported that Ria Antonia, making her first start since being placed first in the BC Juvenile Fillies, “got a little tired.” As for Streaming, assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes shrugged his shoulders: “I don’t know what to say.”

A suitable response to Untapable’s tour de force was easier to find: Wow.