Rachel. Zenyatta. Belmont. ... And pigs fly.

Until proven wrong, I'm going to chalk this one down under the heading "I'll believe it when I see it." But the Daily Racing Form is reporting that the New York Racing Association is actively pursuing a sponsorship that would put a sizable chunk of change on the table in hopes of securing a race that draws both 3-year-old filly phenom Rachel Alexandra and unbeaten older mare Zenyatta.

DRF reports that a source inside NYRA claims the association is close to securing a sponsor that would most likely help bump the purse of the $600,000, Grade 1 Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 3 to $1 million as an enticement to the connections of both fabulous females.

Trouble is, money is just about meaningless to the connections of both horses. Rachel's principal owner, Jess Jackson, is the self-made-billionaire owner of Kendall-Jackson Wines. Zenyatta's owner, Jerry Moss, co-founded A&M Records with bandleader Herb Alpert and names horses in honor of his pal Sting. (Not the wrestler.)

The proposed $1 million purse of the Beldame is walking around money for these two.

Rather, at this stage of their lives, both Jackson and Moss are interested in one thing: Seeing their beloved horses win. A meeting in the Beldame might be fine for one of them -- Jackson, whose filly is training at Saratoga and has a huge win in the Mother Goose S.-G1 over the Belmont strip -- but makes little sense for Moss, trainer John Shirreffs and Zenyatta.

Though Shirreffs isn't yet rejecting the idea.

"We've talked to the owners, we've talked to the trainers. Nobody is saying 'no,'" the DRF's anonymous source said.

Shirreffs confirmed that the race is "something to consider."

"As far as going to New York, I'd love to take Zenyatta back there and have her seen there," Shirreffs told the Racing Form. "I'm from Long Island. One of my wishes in life is to spend some time at Belmont Park."

But, I figure, probably not now.

Mind you, it's now Shirreff's mare that has more reason to need this race. There was a time when I thought Rachel's connections would blink first in the staring match between these two camps; that she'd have to track down and beat Zenyatta to win any championship other than 3-year-old filly. But that was before Jackson sent his filly off for a second time hunting colts. Now her trophy room includes first-place hardware from both the Preakness and Haskell, and the pelts of the two other 3-year-old classic winners this season, Mine That Bird (Kentucky Derby) and Summer Bird (Belmont Stakes).

Meanwhile, Zenyatta has run her lifetime mark to a flawless 12-for-12 (Rachel was not unbeaten at 2), but hasn't left California in doing it and is coming off the closest call in her life; winning by a head in a photo over Anabaa's Creation in the Clement L. Hirsch-G1.

By winning a Triple Crown race and beating the boys twice, Rachel Alexandra is the biggest sensation in all of American racing this season. Zenyatta by comparison is the most dominant horse on the West Coast. As a friend pointed out in a discussion recently, when his co-workers were asked about racing, even those who didn't follow the sport knew full-well about Rachel Alexandra. Nobody had a clue who Zenyatta was.

Lucky for Zenyatta and her connections, then, that the clueless don't vote for Eclipse Awards. (Though your opinions may vary.)

Especially because of the relative lack of stars in the male ranks, I believe that either of these fine females could still be horse of the year. Neither is more than two wins away.

It's how best to get there that matters.

Jackson has already said -- and said, and said -- that Rachel will not run in the Breeders' Cup on Pro-Ride at Santa Anita, where his champion Curlin struggled home fourth in the Breeders' Cup Classic of 2008. Usually ducking the Breeders' Cup would make it very hard to win a championship, but Rachel has been so dominant this year, even against males, that she's given herself a fighting chance.

I'm not sure that beating 3-year-old colts and geldings again in the Travers S.-G1 is her best bet on the road to Horse of the Year, but she could always run against older males in the Grade 1 Woodward at Saratoga on Sept. 5. Possible starters for that race include Grade 1 winner Macho Again and G2 winners such as Asiatic Boy, Arson Squad and Smooth Air. And no female has ever won the Woodward. So if Rachel notches yet another historic win, in that company -- perhaps even scaring some of those gentlemen off -- she could probably be shut down for the season by Jackson and trainer Steve Asmussen and still be Horse of the Year. Running and winning in the Beldame about a month later would just add a second, sweet layer of icing to the cake.

But for Zenyatta, does winning Horse of the Year require beating Rachel? Well, not if somebody else does it for her.

Yes, the best way for Zenyatta to overtake Rachel in the race for the top title would be to beat her head-to-head. But the Beldame is not a race that plays in Zenyatta's favor.

Shirreffs, who planned to keep his mare in California all year leading up to the Breeders' Cup, would have to take her off the West Coast synthetics (where she's usually a monster) and ship her thousands of miles east to run on plain dirt, at a track where Rachel has already set records. The only advantage left for Zenyatta would be her age and physical maturity, but even experience is now on Rachel's side; though only 3, she's run one more race than Zenyatta in her life (13 vs. 12) and she knows what it's like to lose and seems to have decided she'd rather never do it again, thank you.

Shirreffs says Question 1 for Team Zenyatta regarding the Beldame is "does it fit into the Breeders' Cup schedule?" At this stage of the season, if I were them, I think it doesn't. Shirreffs can instead point Zenyatta to the Grade 1, $300,000 Lady's Secret at Santa Anita's Oak Tree meeting on Oct. 10, hopefully win with a little more cushion than in the Hirsch, and stay put for the Nov. 7-8 Breeders' Cup at the same track.

Provided she comes out of the Lady's Secret with a win -- and especially if Rachel runs against males again in either the Travers or Woodward and loses -- then Moss and Shirreffs can decide whether to let Zenyatta try to repeat in the Breeders' Cup Ladies Classic, which very well might not be enough to win her Horse of the Year, even at 14-for-14 lifetime, or to take on males herself in the Classic at 10 furlongs, a distance she's never raced. Winning the latter, coupled with a Rachel Alexandra loss, and Zenyatta indeed could be Horse of the Year, not just champion older female.

Yes, an aggressive, proactive Moss and Shirreffs might go after Rachel at Belmont in the Beldame. But an aggressive Zenyatta camp wouldn't have staked out an all-Cali 2009 schedule in the first place for an unbeaten defending female champion.

And for wealthy men more concerned with the win/loss record than the size of the winner's check, a $400,000 bump in the purse of the Beldame doesn't seem likely to make them any less conservative now.

What did Monday's Jerry do with Saturday's Jerry?

Will the real Jerry Moss please stand up? Or at least stop singing different tunes?

Moss, founder of A&M Records and owner of the most-accomplished older mare in America, Zenyatta, on Saturday morning appeared on a satellite radio racing program, "Down The Stretch." During an interview, Moss said that since it appears stellar 3-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra won't be coming to the Breeders' Cup to face his mare, then his mare would just go on the road to find that filly.

"There's a good chance," Moss said Saturday, that Zenyatta would seek out Rachel, most likely at an eastern racetrack on a conventional dirt surface.

By Monday, Moss was backpedaling so quickly that the only way to make out his original statement now might be to run the tape in reverse and listen for it between the repeated phrases of "turn me on, dead man ..."

"We'd love to meet Rachel Alexandra, and I'm sorry she apparently isn't coming to the Breeders' Cup," Moss said in an interview with The Blood-Horse. "... As owners, we plan for the Breeders' Cup. That is where championships are supposed to be resolved. My brain is fighting my heart on this, because I'd like to give Zenyatta every chance to remove any doubts about her place in history, and Rachel Alexandra would be a challenge. ... We'd like to meet her, but we don't want to swerve out of our program, because we still have the Breeders' Cup foremost in our sights."

Sounds like somebody got a lecture from his trainer, John Shirreffs, after Saturday's satellite radio interview.

Shirreffs had said weeks ago that Zenyatta was going nowhere this summer, not in the sense that she wouldn't be running and winning races, only that she'd be running and winning them all on synthetic surfaces in Southern California.

Since Rachel's principal owner, Jess Jackson, has said he doesn't want his filly running "on plastic" (even though she has a synthetic surface victory to her credit), it appears the leading 3-year-old filly in the country will not be Breeders' Cup-bound. For the second straight year, the Cup will be run at Santa Anita, which has a Pro-Ride synthetic surface. Jackson, whose superstar and champion Curlin flopped in the Breeders' Cup at Santa Anita last year, says he isn't going back.

Moss on Monday appeared to end any notion that Zenyatta might face Rachel at Saratoga in the Go For Wand on Aug. 2, the Personal Ensign on Aug. 30 or at Belmont in the Oct. 3 Beldame. No mention was made at The Blood-Horse of the $1 million, Grade 2 Delaware Handicap coming up July 19, but since that race would be a deviation from Shirreffs' ultra-conservative plan, one has to figure it's out, too.

Moss suggested that perhaps his unbeaten mare -- who won her 11th in as many tries by taking the Vanity Handicap Saturday -- and the outstanding Rachel Alexandra might be able to meet post-Breeders' Cup. But he bellyached about the detention barn at Belmont ("We had a very bad experience with Giacomo going to the dention barn at Belmont ... he went nuts.") and talked like he was scared of running Zenyatta at Saratoga because the "tight turns would compromise Zenyatta given her running style of coming wide from behind."

"Every venue has its idiosyncracies that are risky," Moss said.

So there it is. What looked like a possibility Saturday -- that Moss would be sporting enough to send Zenyatta out to meet Rachel even if Jackson isn't sporting enough to have Rachel attend the Breeders' Cup -- seems an impossibility today. Unless the two meet somewhere after the Breeders' Cup, in the six or weeks or so remaining before Zenyatta is almost certain to be retired to the breeding shed. And, pardon my asking, but exactly what suitable race remains on the calendar after racing's festival of festivals, the Breeders' Cup, which is intended to all but close out the season.

Sadly, much of Moss' reversal appears to hinge on the notion that putting Zenyatta in any position other than a race hand-picked to play to her every strength is "risky" -- not to the mare's health, mind you, but simply to her chances of staying unbeaten.

Moss and Jackson have invested so much in this sport, where risk is inherent with every powerful stride. It's disappointing to see them both become so protectionist now regarding their greatest investments, Zenyatta and Rachel, both of whom were conceived, foaled and nurtured to race.

Just apparently not to race against each other.

Foursome to face Rachel in Mother Goose

At least a fifth showed up.

Four other horses will face juggernaut Rachel Alexandra Saturday in the Mother Goose S.-G1 at Belmont Park. Initially it had appeared that perhaps only three other fillies would be entered, leaving a traditional paycheck-spot, fifth place, unfilled.

Getting the most attention is Edward P. Evans' Virginia-bred Malibu Prayer, although she's making the ultimate step-up in class. The filly took three tries to break maiden, but did so impressively, drawing off by 13 in a mile race at Aqueduct on April 17. She followed that with a seven and a quarter-length victory in a race at Philadelphia Park. But this will be her first try in stakes company -- and it's at the Grade 1 level.

Others who appear to be shooting for second place today (granted, a win is never impossible) include Godolphin Stable's Flashing, a Grade 3 winner at Aqueduct who is 4-for-5 lifetime for $202,560; Don't Forget Gil, winner of the Florida Oaks-G3; and Hopeful Image, who is 3-for-13 lifetime for over $100,000 and was third in a Grade 2 stakes race, but is yet to win from seven stakes tries.

The connections of half those four contenders will be celebrating their filly's first Grade 1 blacktype on Saturday evening. It's difficult to imagine any of them beating Rachel -- although in the racing world, stranger things have happened -- but at least now there should be trifecta wagering available -- although no bets will be taken to show.

Here's wishing a safe trip to all.

Meanwhile, if you've missed it, Rachel Alexandra now has her own sandbox ... whatever that means. The New York Racing Association has set up her own site for news and information, videos, "fun stuff" and a blog.

Sailor's Cap killer: Colitis-X

A necropsy of Sailor's Cap -- recent winner of the Poker Stakes-G3 at Belmont Park who spiked a temperature, collapsed and died in his stall just days later -- has blamed the death on Colitis-X.

I won't share all the messy symptoms, you can read the Blood-Horse story for that, but Colitis-X is a mysterious ailment, causes not completely known, that strikes quickly and obviously is deadly. According to thehorse.com, the Merck Veterinary Manual says the illness is characterized by its "acute onset" of symptoms and that many of the affected horses have "a history of stress." A few other prior ailments are listed as possible precursors to Colitis-X, but apparently at this time veterinary science just isn't sure of the exact cause.

The necropsy was performed at the New Bolton Research Center in Kennett Square, Pa., part of the University of Pennsylvania's veterinary school.

Sailor's Cap defeated four other rivals including Kip Deville in the Poker on June 14. On Tuesday the 16th, according to his trainer, Jimmy Toner, the colt's temperature rose unexpectedly. By Wednesday he was dead.

The 4-year-old son of Distant View out of the Caveat mare Wave On won four of 10 starts for $616,970 in his abbreviated career. At 3, he was victor of the drenched Colonial Turf Cup-G3 at 9.5 furlongs (pictured), and came home third behind Gio Ponti and Court Vision in his next start, the Grade 2 Virginia Derby at 10 furlongs over the same Colonial Downs course. His other stakes placing at 3 was finishing second behind Tizdejavu in the Crown Royal American Turf S.-G3 at Churchill Downs.

Sailor's Cap was bred in Kentucky by Wave On LLC, a partnership of Team Valor International, who campaigned the colt.

Poker champ Sailor's Cap collapses and dies in stall

This is a breaking, and heartbreaking story, but Thoroughbred Daily News reports that Sailor's Cap, who only Sunday defeated Kip Deville in the Poker Stakes-G3 at Belmont Park, has collapsed in his stall and died.

Cause of death is not known.

"He spiked a temperature during the day on Tuesday and simply collapsed early in the morning," trainer Jimmy Toner told TDN. "We are all in complete shock over this turn of events."

The 4-year-old colt by Distant View out of the Caveat mare Wave On (pedigree) won last year's drenched Colonial Turf Cup-G3, as well (pictured), in a career that spanned 10 races and four victories, earning $616,970 for owners Team Valor International. He was bred in Kentucky by Wave On LLC, a Team Valor partnership.

I'm sure all involved are devastated, and as a new fan of the colt (hey, he beat my boy Kip, he earned his "props") they have my condolences.

Five-horse Poker game cruel to Deville

When the five players at the table showed their cards at the end of Sunday's Poker Stakes-G3 at Belmont Park, it was Sailor's Cap and not Kip Deville who found himself raking all the chips into his connections' corner.

The 6-year-old Kip Deville -- truth be told, one of my favorite horses of all time -- was trying to bounce back from a 10th-place finish in the distant Dubai Duty Free on World Cup night March 28. He tried to bluff the field into submission by raising the ante early, leading from the gate, but the game set up for 4-year-old Sailor's Cap, who relished the soft going of Belmont's Widener turf course Sunday.

Sailor's Cap, some might recall, won what had to be one of the soggiest American turf races in recent memory, last year's Colonial Turf Cup-G3. (Pictured above.) The Distant View colt is 2-for-3 over extremely soft ground, with his lone defeat being by a neck in the Crown Royal American Turf S.-G3.

Kip Deville was pressured Sunday by Yield Bogey, who managed to hang on for third while Kip faded to fourth. Tam Lin got up for second as he did (behind Kip) in 2008, while Operation Red Dawn, last year's show-horse in this race, was never really a factor.

As a native Kansan with Oklahoma ties, I've long followed the Okie-bred Kip Deville. I'll never forget his ridiculous early lead in the 2006 Colonial Turf Cup, when he bolted to a nearly 20-length margin down the backstretch. Then-one-dimensional (all-speed), Kip ultimately gave the whole advantage way to Showing Up, who beat him by 3 1/4 lengths. But nobody else caught the gray gamer before the wire, and he finished a tired, but brave second in the mile and three-sixteenths contest.

Kip found his way into IEAH Stables colors soon after and has gone on to far outrun his fairly modest pedigree. His signature win, of course, was his upset in the 2007 Breeders' Cup Mile, but he came back to win a Grade 1 at 5 (the Maker's Mark Mile) and early this year collected the trophy for the shortened Gulfstream Park Turf S.-G1, now at 9 furlongs.

But I do wonder what he has left in the tank. He's 6 years old; not over the hill but no youngster, either. And those springtime trips to Dubai can take a lot out of a horse. Sometimes everything. Some horses never regain their full form upon return to the States.

Kip hadn't run since March and probably needed the race. But Sailor's Cap was making his 2009 debut, so the layoff can't be the whole excuse.

It will be interesting to see how Kip comes out of the race, and where trainer Rick Dutrow points him next. Certainly the Breeders' Cup Mile at Santa Anita was again the ultimate target -- his win in 2007 was followed by a second-place in that race in 2008 -- but there's a lot of work to be done between now and then to get the horse ready.

Meanwhile, I look forward to seeing where Kip lands at stud. His success on the track earned an upgrade from Oklahoma to Kentucky for his sire, Kipling (Gulch-Weekend Storm, by Storm Bird). But I have to think if folks were dying to breed to Kip Deville, he'd have been retired at 5.

Still, he's just the kind of horse I'd like for one of my mares to see: Talented, sound and game, which go a long way toward overcoming mediocre pedigree. Kip Deville's pedigree might not be entirely fashionable, but his dam, Klondike Kaytie (Encino-Charming Dawn, by Vigors) raced 63 times and won 20, including a minor stakes victory, for $173,802. Kip's half-brother, Gotthard (by Ghazi) raced 78 times and won 22 for $286,645 (including the 2001 Claiming Crown Iron Horse Stakes). So when a member of this family does make it to races, they just might keep going back to the post for years.

Durability is something we should all be looking for in our racehorses.

Kip Deville pictured winning 2008 Poker Stakes (Photo/NYRA, Adam Coglianese)

Borel at Belmont: Blackball by default

Many observers, myself included, were critical of jockey Calvin Borel -- in print or otherwise -- for having no mounts during Belmont Stakes week and trying to win the third leg of the Triple Crown on Mine That Bird with very little experience traversing "Big Sandy."

Today Steve Haskin of The Blood-Horse reports that the decision wasn't Borel's. Haskin says he's been told nobody would give Borel a mount during the week at Belmont save one trainer, and that Borel was advised to take off that horse. (I believe I've heard elsewhere that lone ride was to be on the turf course, anyway.)

Calvin Borel is such a kind man that it isn't surprising, I guess, that he would deflect all criticism of his lack of mounts during Belmont week by good-naturedly saying it didn't really make a difference; that like all races, you just "break ... and turn left." It likely did make a difference -- Big Sandy and the Belmont aboard a keyed-up horse have been the undoing of more famed jockeys than he -- but if he tried and couldn't get mounts, what was he to do? Call the whole Belmont trainer colony everything but sons of God?

I don't really know what to make of a situation in which the hottest jockey in America can't get a ride for a week. On the one hand, you'd think somebody -- some little barn with a handful of horses, typically stuck hiring bug-boys and second-tier NY-circuit veterans -- would hand him the reins for a race or two during the week. Even if Borel wasn't aboard a winner, he'd get the feel for just how expansive that turn for home and how long the final stretch are; how you can't go as early as your instincts make you think.

(Haskin doesn't think Borel moved to soon aboard Mine That Bird; I still do. The outside trip might have cost him even more, and maybe Borel just couldn't hold back an uncharacteristically rank horse, but Mine That bird used too much energy, too soon.)

On the other hand, if you're a New York trainer of any stature, top-rung or bottom, what's really to be gained by naming Borel to a half-dozen mounts during Belmont week? Why break commitments and risk fracturing relationships with local jockeys for a rider, Borel, who almost certainly won't be there to ride your horse back the next time he runs?

It isn't your job to get the guy ready to run the Belmont. It's your job to win today, tomorrow and next week and next month with your owners' horses. Even if Borel wins on your horse, you can only say you've benefited if it seemed there was little chance of that horse winning without Calvin Borel. At Churchill Downs that happens almost every day; at Belmont Park, you probably have just as good a shot with any of a dozen other, more familiar, guys or gals in the irons.

There'd need to be some compelling reason to ride Borel instead of your regular guy, or even in the case of a horse that hasn't established a good working relationship with a jockey yet. You might do it if Borel was there to ride a friend's horse in the Belmont; a fellow trainer with whom you've had an on- and off-track friendship for a decade all around the Northeast. Or if it's realistic that you might have a horse in a nice race at Churchill someday and could want Borel in the irons for that one. Or even if the owner of Borel's horse is someone with whom you'd like to earn points, so that you might train some of his horses in the future.

It's likely none of that's the case with Belmont's trainer colony and Mine That Bird.

This might be a product, then, of a formerly obscure horse with perhaps destined to again be obscure connections in owners Double Eagle Ranch (Mark Allen) and Buena Suerte Equine, and trainer Bennie Woolley Jr. What's a Belmont-based trainer to think of collaborating with them?

They're the Sunland Park crowd; New Mexico guys. Mark Allen, despite his oil-business money, will likely never have a substantial string at Belmont and consider you as the trainer. And Woolley -- personable though he seems to be in horse circles -- is someone you just met; you owe him no return of a former favor and it's unlikely he'd ever be in a position to repay your favor of putting Borel aboard a long-shot in the fifth on Belmont Friday. Legging-up Borel would be a courtesy from which you'd not be expecting ever to benefit directly; nothing but "a kindness," as we say in the South.

I mean, follow the links ... there's probably an explanation behind why the NTRA has mugshots but still no bios on these men, nearly six weeks after their horse won the biggest race in America, the Kentucky Derby. Aside from Mine That Bird, nobody in racing's upper echelon is really expecting to hear from these guys again.

So in a game that's all about gaining and exploiting advantages -- not just from gate to wire, but from the sales, to morning workouts, to the entry box, to the saddling enclosure, to post-parade, to gate, to wire -- there was almost nothing to be gained for any Belmont trainer to put Calvin Borel on horses during Belmont week.

Call it a "blackball by default," perhaps.

There might have been some New York allegiances involved -- trainers who'd rather see a jockey or conditioner from the Belmont colony win the Belmont Stakes, rather than these upstarts in cowboy boots and their sudden-celebrity jockey. Or even some jealousy among NY-circuit jockeys and trainers watching this Louisiana middle-school dropout from Churchill breeze into the Big Apple and appear on late-night TV as a guest of David Letterman.

But there didn't need to be any animosity at all for the same net result to occur: No rides for Borel to prep his skills for the Belmont.

It's tough for the guy, for his horse, and for the connections. And it makes you admire Calvin Borel all the more that he had the good spirits and grace to smile through defeat and never utter a harsh word -- knowing he and the horse had tried their best when nobody would do him a favor all week in New York.

No "kindness" for the kindest jockey in America. That is a little bit sad, isn't it?

Belmont, plus the Shinnecock, equals 'racino?'

I'm not sure how I missed this a week ago, but there's some talk -- preliminary, might never happen, but it's left lips and reached ears -- of a Native American casino at New York's Belmont Park.

The Associated Press reported last week that the Shinnecock Indians of New York might gain tribal recognition from the Department of the Interior, something the band has sought since 1978. That would give the tribe the right to establish a casino.

Earlier efforts by the Shinnecock -- who live surrounded by the New York metro area -- for a casino in Southampton, caused conniptions among the tribe's cosmopolitan neighbors. But perhaps a casino at Belmont Park, where folks already gamble on racing, could be beneficial both to the Shinnecock and to the bottom line for Belmont. A Belmont casino in the New York metro area would save Big Apple residents from a trip to Atlantic City or to other Indian-run casinos in Connecticut, in each case about 90 minutes away.

Belmont Park is actually about 70 miles from the Shinnecock community in Southampton, where about 500 members of the tribe live in modest homes on a 1,200-acre reservation. Not far away are the homes of Wall Street barons and celebrities of sports and entertainment, some of the estates valued at tens of millions.

"This could be a home run," said Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi, whose county is home to the racetrack. "Belmont is the ideal location both for the operators of a casino, the residents and the local governments. If it is going to be in the region, I'd rather see it at Belmont."

New York Gov. David Paterson's administration is mulling bids from groups that want to run video slot machines at Aqueduct, which is a very short train ride from Belmont Park. The state estimates some $250 million in annual revenue and 1,200 new jobs in Queens from the slots.

I don't have a whole lot of comment on this story, except to say that if the Shinnecock and Belmont can get together and develop a tasteful, lucrative "racino" for their common good, more power to 'em.

Oh, and this story does bring to mind my recent idea for salvaging Hollywood Park. ... Doesn't seem so wacky now, does it?