Rachel Alexandra Has Unusual Facial Markings
Preakness Winning Filly Displays A Rare Black Splotched Blaze
May 19, 2009
That face. It's splotched as if a can of paint had fallen from scaffolding and splashed its contents primarily at the wide portion of blaze between the eyes, and included an afterthought splatter around the left nostril.
An unusual face. A beautiful equine face. It's the look of a Thoroughbred winner, filly Rachel Alexandra.
Rachel Sets New Facial Precedent
Unbeaten in six straight races, Lady Rachel has set benchmarks in the unusual.
Thoroughbreds don't have faces like hers -- splotched. They have facial patches which are always white, regardless of their shapes, or kinds. They frequently have blazes, snips, and stripes, all common markings on the usual Thoroughbred racer's broad countenance. Splotches of color within markings are rare.
And so is Rachel. Her blaze is twice splashed with black that stands out darkly against her bay body.
On the track, the winning filly beat the boys, including the season's reigning Kentucky Derby champion, Mine That Bird, on May 16 in the Preakness Stakes, the middle stop in the American male Triple Crown series. Fillies don't often do that. Eighty-five years have passed since it last occurred.
Common Thoroughbred Facial Markings
Since color never is present in the white patched areas on a Thoroughbred's face, the white is referred to as "markings", rather than called white. The heels, hooves, pasterns, and ankles also may have markings. Stockings refer to markings that extent above the ankles.
Markings of the Thoroughbred face normally are patterned and recognized in seven different types: 1) blaze; 2) stripe; 3) bald; 4) snip; 5) star; 6) star and stripe; 7) star and stripe and snip.
No Face Like Rachel Alexandra's
As rare as the three high white stockings worn by the great Secretariat, a face like Rachel's never has been seen before in the Preakness's, or any other winner's circle.
In markings terminology, Rachel has a blaze, a long, wide white patch that runs the length of her face. A horse is referred to as white-faced, or bald when a blaze is spread to cover the entire face.
A white patch alone on the forehead, between the eyes, is a star. A stripe may run the length of the face, as does the blaze, but it flows as a thin line.
White hairs on the lip, or nose, or bare skin in these areas are called a snip. A snip may also be star-shaped. Bare skin is pinkish.
A star and stripe is connected, as are a star and stripe and snip.
Curlin and Rachel Alexandra Offspring
Since Jess Jackson and partners purchased Rachel Alexandra on May 7, Jackson has said he would book the filly to his two-time Horse of the Year (2007-2008) Curlin. Both horses won the Preakness Stakes.
One can't help but wonder what facial features will develop when Rachel and Curlin become parents; she, the bay with a large blaze beneath black splashes, and he of the easily recognized wrench-shaped blaze and chestnut coat.
Rachel Alexandra's Face of a Queen
It's a girlish look, that face of Rachel's; it's rather like uncontained makeup gone awry under the heated, glaring lights of center stage.
After her win in rarified Pimlico Race Course air, her glowing, mixed countenance now boasts of a distinct look spectacular only to a Thoroughbred racing queen, an Alexandra the Great.
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