Rachel Alexandra added the Woodward to her list of achievements yesterday, and if the comparisons to Ruffian weren’t plentiful before, they are now. Randy Moss even put Rachel ahead of Ruffian in his own greatest fillies of all time list. That is certainly valid. Rachel’s campaign includes accomplishments the ill fated Ruffian never attempted.

But, back in 1986 I distinctly remember horse racing giants like Woody Stephens, among other columnists, saying that they thought Ruffian was the best until they saw Lady’s Secret. “She is the best of the best.” Now, no one is mentioning the gray little mare that also won Horse of the Year. Ruffian is the only filly the vast majority of writers can think of to adequately compare to Rachel Alexandra.

Certainly the two fillies are similar. One could argue, that what Ruffian did with ease, Borel does by beating his filly down the stretch, thus ensuring wide win margins. Jacinto Vasquez rarely ever touched his beautiful, black filly, who ran like the wind every time she set foot on the track, and left clockers marveling at what just happened, because it was just too easy for her to shatter one record after another. Often Vasquez would plead with his filly to slow down, and his arms would ache from the effort of holding her back. No matter what Rachel does, Ruffian will always be the measuring stick by which all great fillies are measured. Perhaps, it is because no one will ever know just how great she was. It is not far-fetched to say we never say the best of Ruffian, and yet, she still broke records that had previously stood for decades! One record in particular, was that she ran the fastest  5 1/2 furlong by a two year old at the historied Spa - and the list of two year olds that ran there included Secretariat and the great Man o’ War! Her legend grew to a proportion that may or may not be deserved, but it looms over all great fillies nonetheless.

Rachel Alexandra does have a resume unequaled by modern day fillies and one thing Ruffian never had, durability. It is her durability that in today’s day and age is so desperately needed. She has also been given the opportunity that Ruffian never had. Oh, to imagine if Jess Jackson owned Ruffian, and not Stuart Janney! Ruffian, could very possibly have been the second filly to wear the roses at Churchill.

The what ifs are what makes for such interesting debate among horse racing fans. The biggest debate today is oddly enough still between the Zenyatta and Rachel fans. Rachel has transcended another realm, and the debate between who is better between the two of them is just silly. Yes, Zenyatta is undefeated as one fan wrote on bloodhorse.com, but she has only won three races this year. She can’t win Horse of the Year off of a perfect record, no matter how many races she has won, unless of course, they were all run in the year of the vote, no? Her record this year stands at three for three. Rachel is eight for eight. And the fact that Zenyatta won’t travel, makes is so easy to criticize her and have a valid arguemnet. No matter how perfect Zenyatta is, this writer thinks that Rachel would have to travel back in time to 1975 to find a filly equal to her. What dream match ups would you like to see?