Rachel Alexandra, unraced since her historic win over males in the May 16 Preakness, had an uneventful trip from Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky. to Belmont Park in Elmont this afternoon.
Winner of six straight races, all in graded stakes, including the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks, Rachel Alexandra was on the Belmont backstretch by 4:30 p.m. and, after a short walk and a hot bath, was bedded down in stall 5 in trainer Steve Asmussen's barn 58.
Asmussen assistant Scott Blasi made the trip with the filly, who will return to face her own sex in Saturday's Grade 1 $300,000 Mother Goose for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/8 miles.
“Four and a half hours, barn to barn, that’s pretty good,” Blasi told the New York Racing Association. “She’s a pretty good traveler, though – she’s shipped to Oaklawn Park, and the Fair Grounds, and of course to Baltimore.”
Rachel Alexandra is scheduled to be on the track at Belmont Wednesday morning, and may school in the paddock between races on Thursday.