Rachel Alexandra in good shape after Personal Ensign loss

Horseracing Betting Lines

08/30/2010 - Saratoga Springs, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Defending Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra came out of Sunday's upset loss in the Personal Ensign Stakes in good condition and will return to training on Wednesday.

Trainer Steve Asmussen said that he and majority owner Jess Jackson will talk about the filly's future following her gallop on Wednesday morning.

"How she comes back to the track is our focus now," said Asmussen. "You don't want to lose, you're not planning on losing, but you can remember what she's won and what she's done for us. My feelings for her today are the same as my feelings for her the day after the Woodward or Preakness.

"I think there's a great amount of pride in her and belief in herself. She has a tremendous amount of strength in her, and it's been called upon before and it will be called upon again."

The Personal Ensign was Rachel's first career start at 1 1/4-miles. She set the pace with Delaware Handicap champ Life At Ten right behind. The other three females were more than 10-lengths behind on the backstretch.

Sent off as the 2-5 favorite, Rachel put away Life At Ten on the final turn and had a clear lead at the top of the stretch. Persistently, 21-1 at post- time, came charging down the stretch to catch the favorite near the finish and win by a length.

Trainer Shug McGaughey said Monday that Persistently also came out of the race in good condition.

"She's doing well, I'm tired, but she seemed to come back fine," said the Hall of Fame trainer who also conditioned Personal Ensign. "A lot of times it doesn't hit them until a couple of days later, but she cooled out great. We've retooled (her schedule) to point for the Beldame ($350,000 1 1/8-miles at Belmont Park on Saturday, October 2); that's our next stop."

Life At Ten, the 9-5 second pick to Rachel, is also fine and could be entered in the Beldame versus Persistently.

"She was tired, no doubt about it," said trainer Todd Pletcher. "In that situation, if you're going to try to win, and no one else has any speed - if our objective was to be Grade 1-placed or to secure second, we would have approached it maybe a little differently. We wanted to try to win, and ultimately got tired doing that.

"I don't think we'll need to run her at 1 1/4-miles again."

Pletcher indicated that Life At Ten will be pointed toward the 1 1/8-mile Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic at Churchill Downs on November 5.

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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA -- Golden Boy Oscar De La Hoya and his rival Floyd Mayweather Jr. arrived at the MGM Grand here Wednesday amid the pomp and pandemonium befitting two of the biggest stars in the sport who are about to duke it out for the WBC super welterweight crown this Saturday (Sunday in Manila).

As of Wednesday, MySportsbook.com closed its book with Mayweather a favorite to defeat De La Hoya at -170 (a $100 bet wins $70), while De La Hoya is a +140 underdog (a $100 bet wins $140).

Mayweather arrived at about 11:30 a.m. on a big truck with his face and a big "World's Best Pound-for-Pound" sign scribbled across the vehicle. He was accompanied by his entourage made up of rappers and his training team.

A crowd of close to 3,000 eager fans packed the MGM Grand lobby, with their cameras in tow, all trying to vie for position to get a good angle at Mayweather, who is acknowledged as the world's best fighter pound-for-pound.

Eric Gomez, Golden Boy Promotions vice-president, described the fan turnout as "amazing" and swore he had never seen anything quite like this event.

"The crowd was fantastic. Everybody was just too eager to see the two fighters," said ALA manager Michael Aldeguer, who was among those who waited at the lobby together with his ward Rey "Boom Boom" Bautista and AJ Banal.

De La Hoya made his own grand entrance at the hotel lobby at around 12:30 p.m. accompanied by GBP chief executive officer Richard Schaefer and trainer Freddie Roach.

The same group of fans who trooped to see Mayweather also lingered around to get a close look at De La Hoya, who has been secretly working out at a Las Vegas gym for days after arriving from his main training camp in Puerto Rico.

The golden boy then took part in a closed-door afternoon workout with Bautista and Banal. The two, along with Aldeguer and wife Christine, as well as an HBO crew were the only ones allowed inside the gym.

De La Hoya and Mayweather take part in today's final press conference before the official weigh-in this Friday.

Ring Magazine, the acknowledged bible of boxing, reported in its June 2007 issue that 12 out of 20 boxing experts it interviewed have favored Mayweather to defeat De la Hoya, with only 8 favoring the latter.

But Filipino ring icon Manny Pacquiao said in a recent interview with The Freeman's Emmanuel Villaruel that De La Hoya will win by unanimous decision over Mayweather.

To visit this online sportsbook got to MySportsbook.com for all your bet on boxing needs.