Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra never met on the racetrack, despite the best efforts of Oaklawn Park owner Charles Cella, but they will enter Horse Racing's Hall of Fame on the same day this summer in upstate New York.
Steve Asmussen, 50, Oaklawn's leading trainer seven times, and jockey Ramon Dominguez, 39, a winner of 4,985 races, will also be honored Aug. 12 at Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, the equine stars of the class, have an undeniable connection to Oaklawn.
Zenyatta won Oaklawn's Grade I Apple Blossom twice -- first as a 4-year-old filly in 2008 and again as a 6-year-old mare in 2010.
Rachel Alexandra, two years younger than Zenyatta, won the Martha Washington and Fantasy Stakes at Oaklawn in the spring of 2009, jump-starting her undefeated Horse of the Year season.
Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta were on course to meet in Hot Springs on April 9, 2010, with Cella offering a $5 million purse if the two met, in what was being trumpeted as the "Race for the Ages."
Zenyatta held up her end of the deal, coming to Oaklawn and winning the Apple Blossom for the second time in her career to extend her unbeaten record to 16-0. Zenyatta won three more races in 2010 before ending her career with a narrow defeat to Blame in the Breeders' Cup Classic. She was still named 2010 Horse of the Year.
Rachel Alexandra was withdrawn from the Apple Blossom after losing a prep race on March 12, and she was not nearly as dominant as a 4-year-old, winning twice in five starts, a season that included three second-place finishes. She finished second in her final race, the Personal Ensign, Aug. 29 at Saratoga, ending her career with 13 victories in 19 starts and earnings of $3,506,730.
Asmussen trained Rachel Alexandra to six of her victories, getting the filly from Hal Wiggins when Jackson purchased the horse from Dolphus Morrison after a 20¼-length victory in the Kentucky Oaks.
Rachel Alexandra won four more races that summer, with three coming against the boys -- in the Preakness Stakes, the Haskell Invitational and the Woodward Stakes on Sept. 5.
Zenyatta raced solely against fillies in 2009 until she became the first female to win the Breeders Cup Classic at Santa Anita Racetrack in Arcadia, Calif., a race held nearly two months after Rachel Alexandra concluded her 2009 season.
Rachel Alexandra was still named 2009 Horse of the Year.
Asmussen, who recently won his third Arkansas Derby with Creator, wrapped up his seventh Oaklawn Park trainer's title this season with 46 victories and an Oaklawn record $3,448,729 in earnings. He trained three consecutive Horse of the Years in Curlin (2007-2008) and Rachel Alexandra (2009).
"Oaklawn is honored to have played a role in the Hall of Fame careers of Steve Asmussen, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta," Oaklawn Director of Racing David Longinotti said Monday. "Our goal has always been to offer the best racing in the country and when our horsemen and horses go on to achieve such a great success on the national level, it's certainly a positive endorsement to our racing product."
Dominguez, a native of Caracas, Venezuela, won nearly 5,000 races and $191,620,277 in 1996-2013 before suffering a fractured skull in a spill in January 2013. His mount, Convocation, stumbled and fell in a race at Aqueduct, pitching Dominguez onto the winterized inner track and ending his career.
Under the Hall of Fame's rules, only the top four receiving votes from this year's 10 finalists get in.
Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta, Dominguez, and Asmussen outpolled six other finalists -- jockeys Victor Espinoza, Garrett Gomez and Craig Perret, male horses English Channel and Kona Gold, and trainer David Whiteley.
Asmussen was back on the ballot after first making it in 2014, only to be removed that year by the Hall of Fame's executive committee, which cited investigations into Asmussen after People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a video, in concert with The New York Times, alleging that Asmussen mistreated horses.
Authorities in Kentucky and New York -- where incidents contained in the video allegedly were taped -- launched investigations. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission completed its investigation in January 2015 and brought no charges against Asmussen, saying the allegations "had neither a factual or scientific basis."
But because the New York State Gaming Commission had yet to complete its investigation as of one year ago, the executive committee's decision to keep Asmussen off the ballot in 2014 remained in effect in 2015, too. Results of the New York investigation were finally announced in November. Asmussen was fined for minor transgressions, but the most serious charges were deemed unfounded. The executive committee's edict against Asmussen was then lifted.
"It's a very humbling honor to be shared with family and friends, all the sacrifices they've made," Asmussen said from Louisville, Ky., where earlier Monday morning he sent out his Kentucky Derby and Oaks prospects for workouts at Churchill Downs. "It's unique in that you're in the middle of your career. The Hall of Fame seems like something reflective, but in 11 or 12 days, we're looking forward to the Oaks and Derby, great opportunities."
Asmussen is the second-winningest trainer of all time, with 7,287 victories through Sunday.
Rachel Alexandra resides at Stonestreet Farm in Versailles, Ky., where she has produced two foals, including Rachel's Valentina, the runner-up in last year's Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies and one of the leading contenders for this year's Kentucky Oaks.
Zenyatta, who finished with 19 victories in 20 career starts, won 13 Grade 1 races, including the 2008 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic and the 2009 Breeders' Cup Classic, and remains the only female to have won the Classic.
Zenyatta is owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and was trained by John Shirreffs. She resides at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, where she has produced two foals who have raced.
Cella did everything he could to bring the two horses together, even pushing back the date of the Apple Blossom by six days to give Rachel Alexandra more training time, not to mention raising the purse by $4.5 million.
"We did everything we could to make this happen," Cella said on March 13, 2010. "I just think it's a terrible shame."
Information for this article was contributed by the Associated Press, Daily Racing Form, Bloodhorse magazine and the Oaklawn Park media department.
Sports on 04/26/2016