2010 Apple Blossom - Oaklawn Park - Zenyatta

HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Hot Springs’ hotels were full, the weather was beautiful, and shop and restaurant owners couldn’t help wondering whether business would have been even better if Zenyatta had run against Rachel Alexandra at Oaklawn Park.

The champion thoroughbreds were to have raced Friday for $5 million in the Apple Blossom. But Rachel Alexandra’s owners backed out, and Oaklawn dropped the purse to its original $500,000 for the 1 1/8-mile race for older fillies and mares.