Los Angeles, June 30, 2009--You're supposed to play 'em one at a time, whether it's quoits or horse races, but I can't resist speculating about what those erudite Eclipse Awards voters will do with Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra should they go their separate ways and not show up on the same day on the same track the rest of the year. That likelihood hit the game between the eyes on June 29 when Jerry Moss, the owner of Zenyatta, suggested in an interview with The Blood-Horse that his unbeaten filly, just as she did a year ago, will keep to California tracks as she readies for another California Breeders' Cup. Earlier, Jess Jackson, the principal owner of Rachel Alexandra, said in effect that it would take wild horses to drag his horse to California, where dirt is a dirty word.

As an aside, I never did buy into the canard that a Triple Crown champion is all racing needs to reinvigorate itself, not any more than a Zenyatta-Rachel Alexandra Armageddon would be a panacea for the sport's myriad problems. Whether it's showdowns or slot machines, racing is going to be in the short-term fix business for a long time.

Back to Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra, the matchup made in heaven that has gone to hell. For Zenyatta, Moss and his trainer, John Shirreffs, have penciled in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar on August 9. I caught myself calling it the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap, but not this year. After 40 runnings under this name or that, the Hirsch will be a non-handicap for the first time. Without the change in conditions, Zenyatta, who carried 129 pounds in winning the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park, was looking at carrying at least that much and perhaps 130 pounds. If she hews to the same schedule as last year, the Lady's Secret at Santa Anita followed by the Breeders' Cup race that used to be called the Distaff, the Vanity will have been the last handicap of her career. Her impost will be a measly 123 pounds in the Breeders' Cup--whether she runs within her own division or against males in the Classic.

Jackson and his trainer, Steve Asmussen, are taking more time about revealing Rachel Alexandra's next race. Last week, a few days before his Preakness winner won the Mother Goose at Belmont Park, Jackson reeled off at least five possibilities down the road, including two mixed-gender options, the Haskell at Monmouth Park and the Travers at Saratoga.

We're not talking about mere division titles here, we're talking Horse of the Year. Rachel Alexandra has more wiggle room than Zenyatta in this regard. She has already won a Triple Crown race. beating the Kentucky Derby winner, and her wins over other fillies have been off the charts. Should Jackson's filly beat males a second time, the balloting for the big prize could be a foregone conclusion, assuming the two fillies don't meet. There have been times when Eclipse voters have penalized horses for skipping the Breeders' Cup, but two wins over males would negate that quibble. What is more, I don't sense much backlash against Jackson for eschewing the surfaces California horses must run on.

But there's one other what-if: Suppose Zenyatta wins a Classic devoid of Rachel Alexandra? Voters' quandary sets in, that's what.

I don't think Zenyatta can afford to lose from here on out. Depending on the circumstances, Rachel Alexandra has margin for error. The best thing for racing might be for Zenyatta to somehow get beat at Del Mar. That might take the edge off their theoretical rivalry, but it might also force Moss to leave California and find Rachel Alexandra.

Jackson's position is not unlike the stand he took with Curlin a year ago, when the post-Triple Crown clamor was for a race between the 2007 Horse of the Year and Big Brown, the Derby-Preakness winner. In so many words, Jackson said, "Here's my horse, here's the race, come and get him." Curlin might have even gone to France, for the Arc de Triomphe, but he failed his only grass test at Belmont. He and Big Brown never did land in the same starting gate. Jackson had the reigning champion, and could afford to hold his ground. It paid off with a second national title for Curlin. This time, maybe Jackson figures he has the champion pro tem. The way Rachel Alexandra's been blowing the doors off the opposition, it's really her title to lose.

So far, Jackson has kept his baiting to a minimum. "They'll have to come East, or some neutral track," he said last week. "But I can't criticize another owner for protecting his horse."

Let's say both fillies sweep whatever races they have left, prior to the Breeders' Cup. Would that prompt Jackson, in a change of mind, to bring his filly West? I doubt it. "Belmont Park is a great track," he said recently. "It ranks with Santa Anita," he added, and then he caught himself. ". . . In its former days," he said.