Preakness and Kentucky Oaks champion Rachel Alexandra galloped about a mile and a quarter on Belmont’s fast main track early this morning, well in advance of a 9:30 a.m. downpour.

On Saturday, racing’s hottest star will be a heavy favorite against four rivals in the Grade 1, $300,000 Mother Goose Stakes. Admission is free for all women and pink bracelets with Rachel Alexandra’s name will be given away to the first 10,000 customers in support of owner Jess Jackson’s decision to donate a percentage of the filly’s future earnings to the Susan G. Komen “Race for the Cure” for breast cancer.

“We send her out with the second set,” trainer Steve Asmussen said from his Belmont office this morning. “We don’t want her to be a guinea pig and we don’t want to send her out there when the track’s all torn up.”

The Mother Goose will be the second start that Asmussen has trained Rachel Alexandra for and already he is completely enamored with everything the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro does.

“She is a great pleasure to be around,” Asmussen said. “She’s very endearing in the way she looks and acts.”

While Rachel Alexandra has been installed as the 1-5 morning line favorite for the Mother Goose after beating Mine That Bird in the Preakness, the presence of the speedy Malibu Prayer and Flashing could make things slightly tricky for jockey Calvin Borel aboard the eight-time winner.

“I think it’s an extremely respectable race,” Asmussen said. “That said, our only concerns are what we can control. We have to take her over there in the right state of mind and right condition and hope she runs her race.”

Asmussen will also be busy in stakes next weekend at Belmont with Heart Ashley contesting the Prioress and Kensei and Sunday Sunrise in the Dwyer.

Zayat Stables’ Heart Ashley has won her last three starts displaying good tactical diversity.

“This is the race she’s been pointed towards for a long time,” Asmussen. “She’s a very fast filly. In a Grade 1 sprint on dirt for three-year-old fillies, everyone is going to show up. With those fillies going six furlongs here, the trip will matter.”

Heart Ashley rallied from off the pace to win an entry-level allowance at Fair Grounds this winter, but has won her last two on the lead.

“In her last two races, circumstance dictated she show a lot of speed,” Asmussen continued. “Aqueduct on the inner track and then being a solid favorite from the fence at Pimlico, on the lead is where you want to be.”

Be Fair, Cat Moves, Gabby’s Golden Gal, Light Green and Selva are likely to oppose Heart Ashley in the Grade 1, $300,000 Prioress.

Kensei, also owned by Jess Jackson, is the more accomplished of the two Asmussen runners in the Grade 2 $200,000 Dwyer at a mile and a sixteenth for three-year-olds.

Victorious in two of five career starts, Kensei had the misfortune of facing two very sharp winners in his last two starts in the form of Hull and Munnings.

“He’s really come around nicely this year,” Asmussen said of Kensei. “A mile and a sixteenth is a question for him, but he came out of the Woody Stephens well. He’s never been in an easy race.”

Sunday Sunrise is more of a work in progress, according to last year’s champion trainer.

“He ran a good race over the winter, but then we had some feet problems with him,” Asmussen said. “He’s changed as much as anyone has the last two or three months. I really liked his last win at Churchill and I think he’s fixing to move forward in a big way.”

The richest race next weekend is the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Handicap on Saturday, July 4. Asiatic Boy, runner-up to Curlin in the 2008 Dubai World Cup and an earner of more than $3 million, will be one of the favorites for the 10-furlong event.

In his first start for trainer Kiaran McLaughlin earlier this month in Churchill’s Grade 1 Stephen Foster, the six-year-old finished second, a length behind Macho Again.

“He ran great,” McLaughlin said of Asiatic Boy. “He had a troubled trip and still ran second. Him and Einstein beat each other up a little bit trying to go for the same hole twice.”

McLaughlin worked Asiatic Boy four furlongs this morning, a day earlier than expected because of forecasted rain tonight.

Also expected for the Suburban are Cool Coal Man, Dry Martini, Finallymadeit, It’s A Bird, Rising Moon and Stud Muffin.

Charitable Man, fourth in the Belmont Stakes, is a possible starter in the Grade 2, $200,000 Dwyer on July 4. McLaughlin said he wants to discuss the colt’s plan with owner William K. Warren.

“He’s just flying,” McLaughlin said of Charitable Man, winner of the Futurity and Peter Pan over this track. “He’s doing so well that it’s going to be hard to pass, but he’s already won two Grade 2s, so what is there to gain? We want to have him at his best for the Travers and we have to figure out the best way to do that.”

McLaughlin said he was most likely to use the Grade 2, $500,000 Jim Dandy on Aug. 1 as a prep for the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Travers on Aug. 29, both at Saratoga Race Course.

Dream Play, Elusive Heat and Justwhistledixie were all nominated to the July 4 Prioress, but McLaughlin said that only Dream Play is a possibility with an outside chance of Elusive Heat running.

Elusive Heat has been very impressive in her two victories, earning Beyer Speed Figures over 100 in her maiden win and a Gulfstream allowance score. She has not run since winning by 13¼ lengths in Florida January 29.

“There’s been nothing major with Elusive Heat, she just needed some time,” McLaughlin said. “She went home for a while, but now we have her back. She’s a very nice filly, but she’s just not quite there yet.”

Justwhistledixie, who had a five-race win streak snapped by Gabby’s Golden Gal in the Acorn, is being pointed toward the Grade 1, $300,000 Test at Saratoga on Aug. 8.

The July 5 Tom Fool is setting up as a huge rematch between millionaire Fabulous Strike and New York-bred Driven by Success. The two met in the Carter Handicap at Aqueduct, dueling from the start with Fabulous Strike holding on for second and Driven by Success third behind a perfect trip winner in Kodiak Kowboy.

Fabulous Strike was not originally being pointed to the Tom Fool, but now the six-year-old gelding is likely to run.

“As long as he keeps acting well we’re looking at the Tom Fool,” trainer Todd Beattie said of the True North winner on Belmont Stakes Day. “I don’t see any reason not to go. I’m not thrilled about the race being seven furlongs, but there is not another choice going six.”

Beattie added that Fabulous Strike, winless in three starts at seven furlongs, will work either Sunday or Monday morning at Penn National.

With Ramon Dominguez likely to ride Fabulous Strike in the Tom Fool, Driven by Success will need a new rider. Mike Luzzi was aboard for the Carter, but trainer Bruce Levine said he would look into John Velazquez’s availability.

Driven by Success comes off a game third-place finish in the Shadwell Met Mile. After setting a quick pace, the four-year-old was only beaten 1½ lengths by Bribon at the finish.

“If he could have slowed down a little bit more between the half and three-quarters, he might have won.” Levine said of the gelding’s Met effort. “He had a rough trip in the Toboggan, but all his other races for us have been great.”

If Fabulous Strike does indeed run in the Tom Fool, that could have an impact on Woody Stephens winner Munnings who was nominated to both the Tom Fool and Dwyer. His connections have yet to make a decision on his next start.

Should Munnings show up in the Dwyer, he would add to an already strong race featuring American Dance, Masala, Warrior’s Reward, Convocation and the aforementioned Kensei and Sunday Sunrise.

The Tom Fool is likely to include Riley Tucker, Sixthirteen and Two Step Salsa in addition to Driven by Success and Fabulous Strike.

Among those pointing to the Suburban Handicap is Carol Nyren’s Dry Martini, who has hit the board in all four of his starts this year for trainer Barclay Tagg, including a victory in an off-the-turf overnight stakes on May 8.

Now 6, the gelded son of Slew Gin Fizz will be making his 26th lifetime start in the 1¼-mile Suburban, which will be run for the 123rd time.

“He’s just a neat, hard-knocking horse,” said assistant Robin Smullens. “He tries hard every time he goes out there.”

Tagg has entered Mrs. Elizabeth Valando’s 3-year-old Hello Broadway in Wednesday’s third race at Belmont Park, the overnight $65,000 Don Jack Stakes at a mile and one eighth on the turf. .

“He’ll run if I can work him on the grass this weekend,” said Tagg.

Karen Woods’ Maram, who was undefeated in three starts as a 2-year-old including victories in the Grade 3 Miss Grillo and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, continues to work steadily toward a return to the races.

“She’ll work again either tomorrow or Sunday,” said trainer Chad Brown of the Sahm filly, who wintered at Palm Meadows. “She’s been a little slow to come around, and it took a little longer to get back, but she’s fine.”

Brown, who grew up near Saratoga Springs, N.Y., is aiming Maram at the Grade 2, $150,000 Lake George for 3-year-old fillies at 1 1/16th miles on the turf, to be run on Friday, July 31.