THE NOMINATIONS for Monday's $1 million Pennsylvania Derby were tantalizing. The reality of this afternoon's post-position draw at Philadelphia Park will be something less than satisfying.

Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra is running tomorrow at Saratoga. Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird is back home in New Mexico, where he will parade before Monday's All American Futurity at Ruidoso Downs.

There will be no Grade I winners in the Pa. Derby. In fact, there might be only one or two graded stakes winners in the field. The "big" names now are West Virginia Derby winner Soul Warrior, Iowa Derby winner Duke of Mischief and Sunland Derby winner Kelly Leak. Mine That Bird was fourth in that Sunland race before winning the Derby at 50-1.

Fans will be able to watch the horses in the flesh or check out the new $1.2 million HD wide-screen video board, placed by the tote board. The screen is 23 feet high and 40 feet wide.

Wide-screens aside, what is instructive about this Pa. Derby is how clear it is that the race needs to be moved back on the calendar away from the Travers. Track officials will have an opportunity to do that in 2010.

The slot machines will be out of the racetrack building in mid-December, when the stand-alone megaslots casino is scheduled to open. By next summer, the track is scheduled to revert to its preslots look.

The reality is that if Rachel or Mine That Bird had come this year, there would not have been enough room for a large crowd, given that the first and third floors are wall-to-wall slots. The space will be there next year.

The 30th Pa. Derby really needs to be the last one on Labor Day. The event has had its moments, but to get the national visibility and the top horses that a race with a $1 million purse deserves, the race needs to be moved to late September or early October. Just count 4 or 5 weeks back from the Breeders' Cup and drop the Pa. Derby into that spot on an annual basis, a perfect final prep for 3-year-olds getting ready for the BC.

Then, 3-year-olds could be pointed to the $1 million Haskell in early August, the $1 million Travers in late August and the $1 million Pa. Derby a month or so later.

This really needs to happen in 2010.

Meanwhile, do not miss Rachel tomorrow. It might be your last chance until 2010.

Nobody is saying it, but the hints are there that the Woodward Stakes might be her last race this year. The brilliant 3-year-old filly is lengths ahead of the Horse of the Year field. If she wins the Woodward, it's over. Rachel would be the first 3-year-old filly to be named Horse of the Year since Busher won in 1945.

She beat 3-year-olds males in the Preakness and Haskell. She is going after older males in the Woodward.

"She was entered off her talent, not her age," said assistant trainer Scott Blasi. "For all of us involved, this was kind of a new frontier and the timing was good into this race."

Rachel's opponents have won 23 stakes and more than $9 million. This will be the 56th Woodward. No filly has won the race. In fact, no 3-year-old filly has won a Grade I stakes against older males on dirt in horse racing's modern era. The last 3-year-old filly to beat older males in a Grade I dirt route race in New York was Lady Primrose in 1887.

"We want to prove she's a great horse, one for the history books," said Barbara Banke, wife of Rachel's co-owner, Jess Jackson. "We pointed her to this race to tackle history."

Woodward winners read like a who's who of the sport - Curlin, Skip Away, Cigar, Alysheba, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Forego, Damascus, Buckpasser and Kelso.

Calvin Borel will ride Rachel, as he has done in each of her races during her ongoing eight-race winning streak. The jockey has won with only one of his 36 mounts at Saratoga, but none of those was Rachel. She has been training at Saratoga for 2 months, but this will be her first race there.

"[Rachel] has a big heart," Borel said. "She's nothing but heart. She jumps so far and covers so much ground and she keeps it on . . . This has to be the toughest race for her, stepping up to older horses . . . She's the best horse I ever rode, by far."

If Rachel wins the Woodward, one can start to make a reasonable case that she is one of the best horses anybody ever rode. There really is no basis for comparison for what she has done and might still do. *

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