OCEANPORT, N.J. (AP) — Trainer Tim Ice is looking forward to sending out his Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird against Preakness winner Rachel Alexandra in next month’s Haskell Invitational.

“I’m certainly not going to run away and look for another spot because the filly’s coming,” Ice said Wednesday. “If we beat her, then Summer Bird is the best 3-year-old. If she beats us, well, she was supposed to win.”

Rachel Alexandra was the first filly in 85 years to win the Preakness, and in her second race against the boys she will attempt to become the second filly — the first since Serena’s Song in 1995 — to win the Haskell at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2.

“The good horses should meet each other,” Ice said. “The Haskell will be a good race.”

It sure is shaping up that way.

In addition to the winners of two of the three Triple Crown races, the field also could include Arkansas Derby winner Papa Clem, Tom Fool Handicap winner Munnings and stakes winners Atomic Rain, Big Drama, Bunker Hill and Duke of Mischief.

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In her last race, Rachel Alexandra won the Mother Goose at Belmont by 19¼ lengths against 3-year-old fillies for her seventh straight win, all in stakes and all with Calvin Borel aboard.

Trainer Steve Asmussen said the 1 1/8-mile Haskell is just the right fit. Rachel Alexandra has won twice at that distance.

“With her race in the Mother Goose at a mile-and-an-eighth, this should suit her very well,” he said.

The daughter of Medaglia d’Oro has been training at Saratoga Race Course, and plans call for her to be shipped to Monmouth on July 28, the day after a final workout.

Rachel Alexandra, co-owned by Kendall-Jackson Wines founder Jess Jackson and Harold McCormick, has won nine of 12 races for earnings of nearly $1.8 million.

She burst on the national scene by winning the Kentucky Oaks by more than 20 lengths the day before the Kentucky Derby. She was sold a few days later and Jackson put her in against boys in the Preakness, where she defeated Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

Mine That Bird is set to run next in the West Virginia Derby on Aug. 1.

The presence of the filly in the Haskell should be a boost to Monmouth Park.

“Having a superstar of Rachel Alexandra’s caliber in the starting gate for the Haskell only adds to the rich tradition of that race,” said Dennis Robinson, the president of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which owns and operates the track.


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