By the time these words reach your eyes, the biggest star in American racing will be settled back in her stall at Churchill Downs.

Kentucky Oaks and Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra has been gearing down in the cool late summer/early autumn climate at Saratoga since her victory over older males in the Woodward at Saratoga and the superstar 3-year-old filly returned to trainer Steve Asmussen’s barn early Wednesday.

The pace of her life is next expected to accelerate in the near term, though no final or formal decision has been announced by majority owner Jess Jackson as to whether the Woodward was indeed the final race of her stellar 3-year-old season. 

Next year!
One thing is certain: if the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro remains healthy, Jackson and Asmussen plan to continue her racing career next year with an eye toward a run in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup over her home track of Churchill Downs for the final outing of her career.

Rachel Alexandra’s season has been magical and the campaign has been one of the most remarkable in recent memory. She has displayed dominance over 3-year-old fillies and males in the Oaks, Preakness and Haskell Invitational – beating Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winners Mine That Bird and Summer Bird, respectively, in the Preakness and Haskell.

Question answered
 If there was any question regarding her courage, that was answered in her Woodward victory, in which she was pressed every step of the way and held off the onrushing Macho Again to become the first 3-year-old filly to take that prestigious New York race.

If there is a gap on the season’s resume it would be the lack of a meeting with the unbeaten California-based champion Zenyatta.  The reigning winner of the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic (formerly the Distaff) and the champion older filly or mare of 2008 is cranking up to defend her title in the Breeders’ Cup race.

Clark meeting?
It was always the opinion in this corner that, outside of the Breeders’ Cup, the best opportunity for these horses to meet might come in the Grade II Clark Handicap on the Friday after Thanksgiving at Churchill Downs.  They would face males in that one, but it would provide a true exclamation point on which to end Rachel’s season and Zenyatta’s career.

With both fillies at their best, the speedy Rachel Alexandra would seem to hold a tremendous tactical advantage over the late-running Zenyatta. A comparison of speed figures would suggest that Rachel, given a good journey, would not have to fire her best shot to beat the massive Zenyatta.

The racing public’s clamor for a showdown between the two could cool this week should Zenyatta lose on Saturday in her final Breeders’ Cup tune-up in the $300,000 Lady’s Secret at Oak Tree at Santa Anita.  Given that she’ll faces horses that she has mostly been beating all year, that prospect is unlikely. But we’ll see what happens when the gate opens.

There is, however, a very real chance that Zenyatta could lose in the Breeders’ Cup as two rising stars appear capable of giving the reigning champ all she wants should they meet later this month in the championship at Santa Anita.

One is Icon Project, a 4-year-old daughter of Empire Maker trainer by Florida-based Marty Wolfson who won the Personal Ensign at Saratoga by 13 ¼-lengths last out. She is out of the beautiful grass mare La Gueriere, who won the Queen Elizabeth Challenge Cup on turf at Keeneland.  The other is Careless Jewel, a 3-year-old filly with romps in the Alabama, Delaware Oaks and Cotillion Stakes in her last three races.

Zenyatta is a marvelous mare, but the addition of Icon Project and Careless Jewel to the filly and mare division presents the very real prospect that the unbeaten reigning champ could turn out to be only the fourth-best runner in that division. As Rachel did in the Woodward, Zenyatta will have opportunties to prove her quality and courage before the year is out and her career ends, without a showdown with Rachel.

Meanwhile, any racing fan who has not seen the Arc de Triomphe victory by European superstar Sea the Stars on Sunday should rush to Youtube and watch the replay.  In a year in which the American racing focus has been clearly been on Rachel Alexandra since mid-year, the world’s spotlight has shone with increasing intensity on Sea the Stars. 

The 3-year-old winner of the Epsom Derby was bottled up and fought veteran jockey John Murtagh for a good part of the mile and a half Arc, Europe’s greatest test for older horses.  But when a hole finally materialized in the long stretch at famed Longchamps in Paris, he accelerated immediately to surge through the opening and won under minimal urging from 50-year-old jockey Mick Kinane. 

The breathtaking effort – his sixth consecutive Group One victory in a year that has already included victories in Britain’s classic Epsom Derby and 2000 Guineas – has moved some observers to push the colt past Euro icons Dancing Brave, Nijinsky II, and Sea-Bird in the realm of the all-time greats in the sport.

Trainer John Oxx and Hong Kong-based owner Christopher Tsui are considering a trip to California for the Breeders’ Cup for the $5 million Classic. He should easily handle the synthetic Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita and, if all goes well, his opponents there would include Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird – perhaps a first-ever meeting of the Epsom and Kentucky Derby winners.

It’s a longshot that Sea the Stars will come to the U.S., but as Mine That Bird proved at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May, long odds sometimes pay off.