RACHEL ALEXANDRA VS ZENYATTA SET TO CLASH IN APPLE BLOSSOM AT OAKLAWN PARK

Here we go. It looks like the race for the ages is on and we’ve now received confirmation from Oaklawn President Charles Cella that the two biggest starlets in American racing are set to duel it out in a newly-revamped Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park on April 3rd. The race has been customized a bit more to suit the two females with the distance stretched from 1 and 1/16 of a mile to 1 and 1/8. The race had been previously listed as a handicap, but now all horses must carry 123 pounds.
Oh yes, did we mention that the purse has been increased from $500,000 to an ice-cold $5,000,000? Well, it has and the cash is coming in from Cella and the Arkansas Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Assocition – good on you guys!
Oaklawn is an interesting place to run the race and for quite some time all keen US racing observers knew that this was the most likely meeting place as it is the only location where both horses have run. Zenyatta (Street Cry) has always run on the synthetics in her home state of California while Rachel Alexandra (Medaglia D'Oro) is a dirt horse through and through, skipping the 2010 Breeders Cup based on her connections distaste for synthetic racing.
Zenyatta was retired and then pulled out of retirement just a few weeks later and her most recent workout was a 5 furlong breeze at Hollywood Park yesterday and her connections are confident of a run in the Grade 1 Santa Margarita on March 13. Rachel Alexandra has been at Fair Grounds in Lousiana and looks to be pointed at a $200,000 stakes event for fillies and mares on the same day as the Santa Margarita. The Apple Blossom Invitational looks a likely second start for both.
My biggest concern here is a bunch of other horses scratching, turning this into a match race. I don’t think running these two alone makes any sense as that’s not really a proper horse in my book. Zenyatta’s move in the 2010 Breeders Classic simply can’t be replicated in a match race and, although I’m confident that the other fillies and mares would likely be pawns to these two queens, it is still necessary to keep the credibility alive in the race. A $2,000,000 purse for the Gallery Furniture Distaff at Sam Houston looks the only other option for the two high-profile starlets.
This should also end any ridiculous speculation that either of these two will be making some sort of globetrotting superstar appearance at the 2010 Dubai World Cup.
This is going to be such a scintillating race because of the stark contrast between the two ladies with Rachel favouring a front-running wire-to-wire style that we saw in the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, while Zenyatta has born consistent fruit from her late charges down the stretch. I am eagerly-awaiting the antepost odds and it has to be acknowledged that this race could do more for mainstream horseracing than anything in the past few decades. If this race isn’t shown during prime time television, somebody needs to get fired.