Guess who's coming to town? "The Race" gets a WHOLE LOT juicier!

It doesn't get much more tantalizing than this.

The great Bambera, a 4-year-old super filly from Venezuela, just got nominated to the Apple Blossom! Some of you may have heard of the talents of this South American race horse, but now we are all going to see it ourselves if she makes it to Oaklawn! Bambera was a champion in her country 2 years in a row, and was Venezuela's 2009 Horse of the Year. She has won 16 of 18 starts (14 of them Grade 1), more races than Zenyatta and Rachel. She is the leading money winner of all time for Venezuelan horses.

This is scary and exciting at the same time! If any horse could take down Rachel and Zenyatta, it would be Bambera. She has such a zealous following, she is known as "Her Royal Highness" to her fans. She almost became the first and only horse in the world to win two Triple Crowns. You see, in Venezuela there’s a female Triple Crown and one for the males, and she won 5 of the 6 races. The one in which she came in second, she lost to a horse that she has now defeated 3 different times, and losing to him only because she had been raced too many times with very little rest and because of jockey error. She demolished the field in her country's version of the classic:

Video: (#9, Bambera's jockey is in the turquoise jacket) Bambera wins the Gran Premio Simón Bolívar 2009

She then went after the best horse in Mexico "Vivian Record." Vivian Record had won the Mexican version of the Triple Tiara by a combined margin of 79 lengths and annihilated her country's colts by 9 lengths in the qualifying race for the Carribean version of the classic, an international race called the "Clasico del Caribe". This race became a Latin American version of Rachel Vs Zenyatta. In a hard fought battle for the lead (reminiscent of Secretariat and Sham), Bambera eventually won it clearly over Vivian Record.

Video: (Her jockey in the turquoise jacket) Bambera wins the Clasico del Caribe 2009 . 

Bambera has a lot in common with Rachel Alexandra. Bambera's grandsire is the same as Rachel Alexandra's great grandsire: Sadler's Wells. Bambera also has the same running style as Rachel Alexandra, a front runner. This may set up Zenyatta perfectly for the kill. However, it could be that Rachel will take stalking position and take off like she did in the Kentucky Oaks or Mother Goose. We will see ...