BALTIMORE - She has won nearly $1 million. She has won five consecutive races by a combined 43 1/2 lengths. She won the Kentucky Oaks by 20 1/4 lengths. She was sold last week for what one industry source said was $10.3 million.

She is by the hottest young sire in the country, Medaglia d'Oro. She is so good that the rider of the Kentucky Derby winner never hesitated when asked which horse he would ride if there were a conflict.

Well, there is a conflict. And when posts were drawn at Pimlico yesterday afternoon for Saturday's Preakness, Calvin Borel was indeed listed as the rider for Rachel Alexandra. Mike Smith will ride Derby winner Mine That Bird.

Jess Jackson, the owner of two- time Horse of the Year Curlin, put together the deal for the filly. He wants to race her, but he really wants to breed her to Curlin.

"She is a graceful athlete, she moves like a ballerina and has the size of some of the colts,'' Jackson said. "I am looking forward to seeing her compete.''

She will get the chance in the Preakness. She has dominated fillies. This is a different game.

Rachel Alexandra will be the first Oaks winner to run in the Preakness. Over the years, 52 fillies have run in the race. Four have won, none since Nellie Morse in 1924.

"I told people [on Oaks Day] that I was glad she was not in the Derby," said Mine That Bird's trainer, Chip Woolley.

So, how good is Rachel Alexandra? Well, names like Ruffian are being tossed about.

Ruffian is the Holy Grail among American fillies. She never lost - until the day she broke down in that 1975 match race at Belmont Park with Foolish Pleasure. She was buried in the track's infield.

At this point, there really is no way to know how good the filly really is. She gets better with every race. Her workout before the Oaks was termed the best he had ever seen by one veteran clocker who immediately said he would pick her in the Derby, were she running in it.

Wayne Lukas often ran top fillies against colts. He won his first Derby in 1988 with the filly Winning Colors. Lukas has longshots Flying Private and Luv Gov in this Preakness. He could do without Rachel Alexandra.

"I don't like the idea at all,'' he said. "I'd like to run against the third-place finisher in the fifth at Beulah."

Rachel Alexandra will not be running at Beulah Park anytime soon.

"It really disappointed me because after the Derby I thought I had one heck of a shot in the Preakness," said Papa Clem's trainer, Gary Stute. "I think that filly is in a different world than the rest of us."

Rachel Alexandra has not beaten great fields. This certainly will be the strongest group she has faced. Conversely, given all the attrition (Quality Road, I Want Revenge, Old Fashioned), this is not a great group of 3-year-olds. None of them has faced a horse with the talent of the filly.

David Fawkes, the trainer of speedy Big Drama, was asked, if "she scares you more than any other colt in the country.''

"Yes,'' Fawkes said, succinctly.

Veteran Hal Wiggins had trained the filly. With the ownership change, she is now in the barn of Steve Asmussen, who won more than 600 races in 2008 and broke his own world record. He also found time to train and win all those big races with Curlin.

Whatever the changes, she is still fast. And Borel still will ride her. Woolley wishes none of it were so.

"I think any man would be a fool to welcome that filly coming,'' Woolley said. "She's tough, and you know, am I craving to run against her? No. But if she is there, we will try to beat her if we can.''

Can Mine That Bird? Can any of the 13 other males entered?

Rachel Alexandra drew post 13, which should keep her out of any potential traffic issues. Speed Big Drama drew the rail and surely will go to the front, with the filly close by. Mine That Bird drew post 2.

Borel, 42, was discovered at 40 when he won the 2007 Derby with a textbook ride on Street Sense. His ride on Mine That Bird was better. Nobody knows that better than Woolley.

"It's amazing that a guy at his age is still as daring and as fearless as he is," Woolley said. "You know if you looked at his arm and where he broke it so badly and they plated it, pinned it and screwed it, you know, you think some of those things would be haunting him by now, but he just has none of that in him. He likes the fence and if it is there he is going to take it and make you eat it because he's going to win and he's going to steadily win.''

The trainer really wishes Borel were riding his horse.

"They just go together like bread and butter," Woolley said.

Before the Oaks, Borel said Rachel Alexandra was the best horse he had ever ridden. She proved the jockey right with her Oaks tour de force.

Even though Asmussen typically does not ride Borel, the decision was made to keep him when it was determined the filly would run in the Preakness.

Clearly, Rachel Alexandra is already fit. The training at this stage is not as important as the rider's familiarity with her and her familiarity with the rider, a rider who has so much confidence in her that right after he won the Derby, he said he would ride her if the two horses ended up in the same race.

They did. And Calvin Borel is riding Rachel Alexandra. If the man who is part horse thinks she is the right one, who can argue?

Nicanor wins very big

 

Nicanor ran out of the TV set, winning by 15 1/4 lengths. Like Barbaro's first win, this was on grass, which probably was Barbaro's best surface. Could be the same for Nicanor, who has the look of a stakes horse on some surface sometime soon. *

 

Trainer Michael Matz has been certain for some time that Barbaro's full brother, Nicanor, was going to be a very good horse. After a January debut where everything that could go wrong did go wrong and two close seconds in very fast time, Nicanor proved his trainer prophetic yesterday in the sixth race at Delaware Park, the track where Barbaro won his October 2005 debut by 8 1/2 lengths.