There will be no collusion to keep Rachel Alexandra out of the 134th Preakness Stakes.
It appears the 3-year-old filly who stormed out of the Kentucky Oaks with an aura of invincibility almost certainly will run at Pimlico on Saturday.
Her path as a $100,000 supplemental entry was cleared over the weekend when Mark Allen, co-owner of Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird, and Ahmed Zayat, owner of Derby runner-up Pioneerof the Nile, backed away from a plan that would have kept the likely pre-race favorite on the sideline.
It assured Pimlico Race Course of having one of its best Preakness fields in years - with the top four Derby finishers plus the best rising female - and precluded another black eye for a sport already bruised by recent negative publicity. It also adds intrigue because Derby-winning jockey Calvin Borel will switch allegiances by riding Rachel Alexandra in the Preakness.
"This is fantastic," Tom Chuckas Jr., president and chief operating officer of Maryland Jockey Club, said on Monday. "This provides us a race of the ages. ... This is exactly what the sport needs."
Chuckas helped ensure Rachel Alexandra's participation when he talked Zayat out of a deal that would have blocked Rachel Alexandra's entry for lesser horses.
"I did have a conversation with Zayat, and the conversation was fruitful," Chuckas said. "He listened to the Jockey Club position. I was told he would enter the Preakness with Pioneerof the Nile and only Pioneerof the Nile. I found him to be a class gentleman."
Zayat told Horse Racing Television on Sunday that Allen had called him and suggested both owners add a second horse to their entries in order to block Rachel Alexandra. Those entries would have taken the field to 14 horses - the Preakness' limit - without the filly, who was not nominated to the Triple Crown series.
Allen's Double Eagle Ranch in Roswell, N.M., planned to enter Indy Express, who is 0-for-9 lifetime with just one finish in the money. Zayat was going to cooperate by bringing a horse from Zayat Stables.
The backlash caused them to reconsider.
Marylou Whitney and D. Wayne Lukas, owner and trainer of Flying Private, said Luv Gov would come to Baltimore and race only if Rachel Alexandra was in the field and not as a blocking mechanism.
