Serengeti Empress dominates Rachel Alexandra

NEW ORLEANS – Serengeti Empress is developing into the queen of all-or-nothing horses.

When Serengeti Empress performs well – and so far, that correlates directly with making a clear early lead – she looks fantastic. And when she loses, the filly really loses.

Last year at age 2, Serengeti Empress won three races by more than 38 lengths combined and lost her other two by a total of 27. On Saturday, making her first start as a 3-year-old in the Grade 2, $200,000 Rachel Alexandra Stakes, the super Serengeti Empress showed up. She went straight to the lead under James Graham and never came close to losing it. Up by six lengths at the stretch call, Serengeti Empress cruised under the wire 4 1/2 lengths in front of 23-1 runner-up Liora.

Eres Tu, a 25-1 shot, rallied from eighth to finish third, and was followed by 17-1 Street Band. Then came Needs Supervision, Oxy Lady, Molto Bella, and 5-2 shot Positive Spirit, who tracked the pace between horses and came up empty while racing for the first time since winning the Grade 2 Demoiselle Stakes by more than 10 lengths.

“She had a clean trip as far as I could see," Positive Spirit’s trainer, Rodolphe Brisset said. "At the half-mile pole she switched to her left lead and he had no horse,” he said, referring to jockey Manny Franco.

Late last summer, Serengeti Empress won the Ellis Park Debutante by more than 13 lengths and the Grade 2 Pocahontas, her two-turn debut, by more than 19. She led from the start in both races, but when unable to get the lead in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, she folded her tent early, losing by more than 17 lengths.

Given a rest in Florida following the Breeders’ Cup, Serengeti Empress didn’t come back into trainer Tom Amoss’s stable until late December, and she had posted just three timed workouts coming into Saturday’s race.

“You don’t always know exactly where you are with them," Amoss said. "She showed today she was ready.”

With nobody else determined to go forward early, jockey James Graham, riding Serengeti Empress for the first time, made a comfortable lead through a first quarter in 24.02 seconds. The half was 47.81, a moderate tempo, Serengeti Empress went her third quarter in 24.64, and she really popped into action when Graham shook the reins just past the quarter pole.

“She bounced along on the front end and travelled through her race beautiful. She picked up and put them to bed turning for home, and she did it the right way,” Graham said. “She does everything right, very easy. She finished up pretty well. Her gallop out wasn’t great; you kind of expect that first time back.”

Serengeti Empress got clobbered late in the wagering and paid $5.80 as the favorite. She ran 1 1/16 miles on a fast track in a solid 1:44.74.

“Certainly, today’s racetrack helped her cause,” said Amoss, who trains the filly for owner Joel Politi. “I think the track’s played to the front end most of the day to day, but having said all that, c’mon, that was a really good performance.”

Serengeti Empress earned 50 qualifying pointes toward the Kentucky Oaks – assuring her a berth in the field – while Liora, who ran a much improved raced following a fading fourth in the Silverbulletday, got 20, Eres Tu 10, and Street Band 5.

Chasing Yesterday, who didn’t ship from California, and Bell’s the One, who was reported sick earlier in the week by her trainer, Neil Pessin, were scratched.

Serengeti Empress is by Alternation out of Haversham, by Bernardini. Amoss and Politi plan to run her back in the Fair Grounds Oaks here on March 23. Maybe Serengeti will beat them all again – maybe she’ll get nothing.