Zardana (left) shocks 1-20 shot Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds

  PICTURE: Fair Grounds/Lou Hodges Photography  

Zenyatta stablemate beats Rachel Alexandra 

Report: USA, Saturday 

Fair Grounds: New Orleans Ladies Stakes 1m1½2f, dirt, 4yo+ fillies and mares

RACHEL ALEXANDRA was sensationally beaten at odds of 1-20 on her seasonal debut on Saturday - by a mare named Zardana representing none other than Zenyatta's trainer John Shirreffs.

Trainer Steve Asmussen had warned that the US horse of the year might need the run and his worries seemed justified as she was outrun in the stretch by 9½-1 chance Zardana, who had the benefit of a recent outing.

Steve Asmussen: "she needed the race more than anything"

  PICTURE: Edward Whitaker  

"She needed the race, that's all," said Rachel Alexandra's jockey Calvin Borel. "My little filly tried hard. She needed the race more than anything."

Rachel Alexandra, sent off at a dividend of only five cents on the dollar in the win pool, broke well and sat a couple of paths wide just off the pace, alength behind outsider Fighter Wing.

She cruised up to take the lead on the far turn but David Flores immediately asked Grade 2 winner Zardana to close up from third and she may just have got her nose in front soonafter entering the stretch.

Rachel Alexandra fought back on the inner and the pair duelled until Zardana asserted to score by three-quarters of a length. The pair drew 11½ lengths clear of Unforgotten inthird.

Borel added: "You know how I know she's a real racehorse? She was beat when that other horse went by her but she didn't quit.

"She dug in and fought right back and stayed with the winner the rest of the way. That's the kind of racehorse she is. She tried her heart out."

Rachel Alexandra's defeat throws into jeopardy the $5 million showdown with Zenyatta in the Apple Blossom Stakes at Oaklawn on April 9.

Asmussen said: "Well, if I thought she'd get beat I wouldn't have run her today," he said. "So I'm definitely going to be cautious. We just want to do what's right by the mare.

"She was strong early and she got tired," added the trainer. "Very disappointing that she lost - you hate to be in that position, but now it's over you know it's not something we got away with.

"It was a lack in fitness and it's our job to have her there and I didn't do it. How tired she is off that will be established in the coming days. She's not where I thought she was and if I had thought she would get beat she wouldn't have run."

While this was perhaps not the result a 10,000-plus crowd had come to see, Flores was not about to apologise for beating the champion.

"We had a picture-perfect trip," he said. "The strategy was simply to get her to relax and John [Shirreffs] said she would get the job done.

"I got after her pretty hard coming home but she is a real warrior."