Horse racing is one of the few sports that pits males against females in direct competition. That's true whether the athlete is in the saddle or underneath it.
The fabulous filly Havre de Grace is set to compete against 11 males Saturday in the Breeders' Cup Classic, the richest race in North America. A victory, and even a strong showing in defeat, would wrap up Horse of the Year honors for Havre de Grace.
That would mark the third straight year a female has been named Horse of the Year, an unprecedented streak in US racing. Since World War II ended, only six fillies or mares have earned the title.
Now, we're looking at three in a row? Girl power, indeed.
Havre de Grace has something in common with the past two horses of the year, beyond gender. She, Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra all are imposing animals. They can muscle up with the best of them. To put it in another sports analogy, they would be power forwards in basketball.
Trainer Larry Jones, a hands-on conditioner and renowned judge of horseflesh, said he has a checklist when he's evaluating the physique of a horse, especially at the auction ring. Havre de Grace got every checkmark.
"This horse here, she's just, to me, is a perfect specimen of a horse," Jones said on a National Thoroughbred Racing Association conference call over the summer. "She's got the large heart, the super large nostril. She just has everything. . . . And she's large. She can tack weight. She just absolutely let us confirm what we always felt. She's just an outstanding animal."
So, what's happening in horse racing? Have we simply been blessed to witness three beasts in consecutive years who are exceptions to the rule, or are we witnessing the rules change?
Evidence points to the latter.
For decades, American trainers resisted running their best fillies and mares against male horses. There wasn't much plus side to it.
For one, winning a prestigious stakes race, or even a year-end championship, doesn't have the same breeding payoff for female horses since they can reproduce only once a year. A male stallion can cover a couple hundred mares in a season, so any increase in his stud fee from a great race record gets multiplied over and over. And the purses for top stakes races restricted to female runners were relatively rich, so why not cash there without the riskier gamble of running in open company?
Over time, such reasoning morphed into groupthink. Trainers avoided entering females against males simply because it wasn't done. Anyone who did suddenly was a maverick.
The Breeders' Cup helped erode such groupthink. Europeans came over and regularly won with fillies and mares in the Mile and Turf races. The mare Goldikova, in fact, is aiming for her fourth straight BC Mile victory this weekend.
In European racing, run almost exclusively on the more forgiving deep grass surfaces, it was commonplace for the very best female horses to run in the best stakes for open company. The Europeans' success in the Breeders' Cup emboldened US trainers to go maverick.
D. Wayne Lukas even had the cowboy hat to complete the maverick look. He won the 1988 Kentucky Derby with the filly Winning Colors. He won the 1995 Jim Beam Stakes and Haskell Invitational with Serena's Song. Lukas' former assistant, Todd Pletcher, got his first Triple Crown win with a filly, Rags to Riches, in the 2007 Belmont.
Then came Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta. Each defeated males at some point in her career.
Now, we have Havre de Grace. The 4-year-old has won eight of 14 lifetimes starts and never has finished worse than third. She has won five of six this year, including a victory over males in the Woodward Stakes at Belmont two races back.
Among the other 11 runners in the Breeders' Cup Classic, none would have a compelling Horse of the Year argument even with a victory. Some have even suggested Goldikova would be worthy with a win in the Mile, even though that will be her only North American race of the year.
To that, we can say only, "Havre de Grace, you go, girl."
