Rachel Alexandra will make her first start since her historic Preakness victory next Saturday at Belmont Park, but her presence in the Grade 1, $300,000 Mother Goose isn’t scaring everyone away.

Trainer Mark Hennig has the Mother Goose under serious consideration for Alan Brodsky’s Don’t Forget Gil, while Kiaran McLaughlin is also mulling a start in the nine-furlong race for West Point Thoroughbreds’ Justwhistledixie. Of the other 22 nominated to the race, Godolphin Stable’s Flashing and Edward P. Evans’ Malibu Prayer are considered probable.

“Mainly, she’s training well, and she loves Belmont,” said Hennig of Don’t Forget Gil, who broke her maiden impressively here last fall and went on to win the East View Stakes at Aqueduct and the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs. “She’s a pure route horse. Obviously, there’s Rachel Alexandra, but we’re going into the race with our eyes wide open. I’d rather race her here than ship elsewhere, and she could get a Grade 1 placing if she’s lucky enough to hit the board.”

If the weather would cooperate, McLaughlin would be more committed to running Justwhistledixie, a multiple-graded stakes winning daughter of Dixie Union, in the Mother Goose.

“We’re trying to get a work into her,” said McLaughlin of Justwhistledixie, second as the favorite in the Grade 1 Acorn on June 6. “If we can’t, we’re up in the air.”

McLaughlin added that Stewart Armstrong’s Dream Play, winner of the Dearly Precious and the Grade 2 Comely, would warrant a start only if there were a small field.

“If there’s a three-horse field and a chance for black type, maybe,” said McLaughlin.

Asiatic Boy, second in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster to Macho Again in his American debut, could make his next start at Belmont Park on July 4.

Kiaran McLaughlin, who assumed the training of Asiatic Boy on April 23 for Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al-Maktoum, said the Grade 2, $400,000 Suburban Handicap was under consideration for the 6-year-old Argentine-bred, a winner of more than $3 million.

In Dubai, Asiatic Boy won the 2007 United Arab Emirates Derby, and the Al Maktoum Challenge - Round 3 this year at Nad al Sheba Racecourse before finishing 12th in the Dubai World Cup. Last year, he was a distant second to Curlin in the World Cup.

Trainer Christophe Clement has been first or second in the standings ever since the second day of Belmont Park’s spring/summer meet, but that position is becoming increasingly tenuous with every passing weather report.

Heading into Friday’s card, Clement was tied with Barclay Tagg and Gary Contessa for first with 12 victories, of which 11 have come on the turf. With 60 races having been taken off the turf through Friday, and rain forecast for at least the next week, Clement has good-naturedly resigned himself to the prospect of relinquishing his lead, for the time being.

“They’re all catching up to me,” said Clement, who has saddled three winners over the past four weeks, most recently scoring with Laureate Conductor last Saturday. “When we get a break with the weather, when it gets better, maybe we can win a few races.”

On Saturday, the Clement-trained Skagerrak is scheduled to make his American debut in the first race, a one-miler claimer at a mile on the Widener Turf, while Belle Allure (IRE), impressive winner of an allowance here on May 21, is entered in the Grade 2, $150,000 New York on the inner turf. Clement’s three entries Friday were scratched when the races came off the turf.

Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird is on schedule for his appearance in the Grade 1, $1 million Shadwell Travers at Saratoga Race Course on Saturday, Aug. 29, trainer Tim Ice reported Friday from Louisiana Downs.

“He’s doing great,” said Ice of Summer Bird, who will use the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell Invitation at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2 to prepare for the 1¼-mile “Mid-Summer Derby.” “I think he misses being up there.”

Ice said he plans to work the son of 2004 Belmont Stakes winner Birdstone four times before the Haskell, with his first move set for next weekend.

“I was going to work him tomorrow (June 20) but I canceled that,” said Ice. “We’ll give him an extra week to keep him fresh, and let him be a happy horse.”