What a gal!

She’s soundly beaten the boys (twice), completely overwhelmed her peers, and Saturday at Saratoga Race Course, 3-year-old Rachel Alexandra lines up against the older fellas for the first time as she looks to re-write racing history yet again and stake her claim to Horse of the Year honors in the Grade 1, $750,000 Woodward Stakes.

The Brooklyn Bridge had only been open a few years and Grover Cleveland was president of the United States when Lady Primrose won the 1887 Manhattan, then a 1¼-mile race on dirt, as the last 3-year-old filly to beat older males in a Grade 1 dirt route race in New York.

“We want to prove she’s a great horse, one for the history books,” said Barbara Banke, wife of Stonestreet Stable’s Jess Jackson. “We pointed her to this race to tackle history.”

Only a handful of fillies and mares have even competed in the 1 1/8th mile Woodward, which will be run for the 56th time Saturday as the 10th race on a stellar 12-race card that also features the 30th running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Forego at seven furlongs. The only other 3-year-old filly to run in the race was Summer Guest, who finished second but was disqualified to third in the 1972 edition.

“She was entered off her talent, not her age,” said assistant trainer Scott Blasi of Rachel Alexandra, who beat 3-year-old colts in the Preakness and Haskell Invitational and in between ran off to a 19¼-length win over fillies in the Grade 1 Mother Goose at Belmont Park. “For all of us involved, this was kind of a new frontier, and the timing was good into this race.”

With Saratoga’s gates opening at 7 a.m., the first 25,000 fans will receive a Rachel Alexandra button to commemorate the occasion, which is being celebrated throughout the area with Rachel Alexandra banners lining downtown Saratoga Springs and mayor Scott Johnson officially declaring September 5 to be “Rachel Alexandra Day.”

The Woodward, with post time at approximately 5:52 p.m. Eastern, will be telecast live on MSG Plus and Mid-Atlantic Sports Network.

Although they had an array of Grade 1 races at Saratoga to choose from, Jackson, co-owner Harold McCormick and trainer Steve Asmussen settled on the Woodward, which figures prominently on the resumes of some of the best horses in history, among them Horse of the Year champions Curlin, Skip Away, Cigar, Alysheba, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Forego, Damascus, Buckpasser, and Kelso.

Standing in the way of history – and Rachel -- is a formidable group of seven older, proven stakes winners, from 2009 Grade 1 Whitney hero Bullsbay and runner-up Macho Again to Past the Point, who at 40-1 threw a scare into Curlin in last year’s Woodward, leading to midstretch before finishing second by 1¼ lengths.

“It’s tough competition Saturday,” said jockey Calvin Borel, who is 8-for-8 aboard Rachel Alexandra dating back to last November’s Grade 2 Pocahontas. “We’re stepping up to the plate and we just have to put them in the gate and see what happens. This has to be the toughest race for her, stepping up to older horses.”

It may be her toughest challenge to date, but Eric Donovan, oddsmaker for The New York Racing Association, Inc., installed Rachel Alexandra as the 1-2 morning-line favorite from post position No. 3. She will carry 118 pounds to her rivals’ 126 pounds; as a 3-year-old, she gets a five-pound weight allowance; as a filly, she gets another three pounds.

Second choice at 6-1 is Bullsbay, who upset Grade 1 Stephen Foster winner Macho Again and the recently-retired Commentator in the Whitney on August 8.

“I have tremendous respect for Rachel Alexandra,” said H. Graham Motion, who trains the 5-year-old Bullsbay for Mitchell Ranch. “After the Whitney, I said I wasn’t going to go [in the Woodward] , but Bullsbay was doing so well I began pointing to the race.”

Macho Again, the 4-year-old winner of more than $1.6 million, is 8-1 on the morning line, while 6-year-old millionaire It’s a Bird, who will be making his 32nd lifetime start in the Woodward, is 10-1.

Also listed at10-1 is Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa al Maktoum’s 6-year-old Asiatic Boy. A winner of more than $3.2 million, Asiatic Boy was second to Macho Again in the Stephen Foster in his first start in this country and second again in the Grade 2 Suburban at Belmont Park.

Robert V. LaPenta’s duo of Da’ Tara, the 2008 Belmont Stakes winner, and Cool Coal Man, both 4 years old, is listed at 12-1 odds.

“Like I said, it’s her show, but we’re going to try hard to beat her,” said their Hall of Fame trainer, Nick Zito.

The longshot is Past the Point at 15-1, who turned in a bullet work of 58.72 Monday for the race. Trained by Eoin Harty for Darley Stable, the 5-year-old son of Indian Charlie is coming off a victory in a seven-furlong optional claimer here on August 6.

“I know the filly is the one to beat, but hopefully, everyone will run well,” said Brian Ainge, Harty’s assistant. “We’ve been watching Rachel all summer long. She’s facing older horses for the first time and they’re all facing her for the first time – it will be very exciting.”