Why Rachel Alexandra is Consistently One of the Fastest Fillies Ever!

You've perhaps heard that Rachel Alexandra scored the highest Beyer Speed Figure (116) of ANY North American racehorse last year - 2009? Well, here are her breakdowns for Beyer Speed figures for her most recent races:

BEYER SPEED FIGURES

Rachel Alexandra
2010
La Troienne 103
New Orleans Ladies 100
2009
Woodward 109
Haskell 116
Mother Goose 111
Preakness 108
Kentucky Oaks 108
Fantasy 101
Fair Grounds Oaks 103
Martha Washington 100

To give you an idea of what this means, Zenyatta's career best Beyer Speed Figure was when she beat the boys in the Classic last year (2009), at 112. Here are some other recent 3 yo filly champs and their top BSFs during their 3 yo filly season:

2007 Rags to Riches - Career high107
2004 Ashado - Career high106
2003 Bird Town -Career high 101

As far as older fillies & mares, clearly they have run faster due to maturity, but what Rachel is capable of putting out this year remains to be seen.

FYI - Male horses may have higher BSF than female horses. Here are some famous horses and their BSF, just for comparison:
Bernardini- Career high 117
Big Brown - Career high 109
Invasor- Career high 113
Lava Man- Career high 120
Monarchos - Career high 116
Smarty Jones - Career high 118
Secretariat - if there was speed figures back then, he would have earned 139 in the Belmont!

According to Andy Beyer himself, Ruffian was probably the fastest filly ever. He guestimates that Ruffian's career high BSF would probably be 120+ scored during one of her 2-year-old races. ...But Rachel comes pretty close!!!