She walks like a supermodel and runs like an Olympic champion, and Saturday afternoon, Rachel Alexandra will make her New York debut when she puts her six-race winning streak on the line in the 53rd running of the Grade 1, $300,000 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont Park.

The leggy bay daughter of Medaglia d’Oro, who will be making her first start since beating the boys in the May 16 Preakness Stakes, arrived at Belmont Tuesday afternoon to the snapping of camera shutters, and was bedded down at trainer Steve Asmussen’s barn in stall No. 5, the same one occupied by two-time Horse of the Year Curlin.

Not surprisingly, there were more people on hand for her arrival than will be horses facing her in the nine-furlong Mother Goose – just four others were entered in the one-turn race: Alan Brodsky’s multiple stakes-winner Don’t Forget Gil, off the board just once in eight starts; Godolphin Stable’s Flashing, with a three-race win streak of her own; Edward P. Evans’ Malibu Prayer, who has won her last two starts by a combined margin of 20¼ lengths, and Linda Sullivan and Gerald Procino’s Hopeful Image, who is coming off a 1 3/4-length victory in an optional claimer in the mud here on June 12.

Whether any of them are up to the challenge of upsetting Rachel Alexandra, who her jockey, Calvin Borel, calls “the best horse in the country” remains to be seen.

“We’re all kind of in the same boat, with Rachel Alexandra being in the race, of looking at a Grade 1 stakes placing,” said Rick Mettee, the North American racing manager for Godolphin Stable, which won last year’s Mother Goose with Music Note. “Besides Rachel, the other three are pretty good fillies, and they’re all in form. Flashing is doing exceptionally well – after her victory in the (Grade 3) Nassau County (May 2) it was felt this would be a logical spot for her.

“Apparently,” he added, “they thought it was a logical spot for Rachel Alexandra, as well.”

Indeed. After her historic victory over Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird in the Preakness, her new owners, Jess Jackson and Harold McCormick, considered entering Rachel Alexandra in the Grade 1, $1 million Belmont Stakes on June 6. After much consideration, they felt it would be asking too much of her and aimed instead at the Mother Goose, whose roster of victors fillies such as Sky Beauty, Go for Wand, Davona Dale, Ruffian, Shuvee and Dark Mirage, all of whom went on to championship honors.

“This,” said assistant trainer Scott Blasi of the Stonestreet Stable miss, “is a stepping-stone, hopefully, to bigger things.”

Rachel’s reign began last Nov. 29, when in her first start for Borel she ran off to a 4 ¾-length victory in the Grade 2 Goldenrod Stakes at Churchill Downs. She piled up impressive victories in the Mount Washington Stakes at Oaklawn Park, the Grade 2 Fair Grounds Oaks and the Grade 2 Fantasy, also at Oaklawn, but it was her 20¼-length tour de force in the Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks that catapulted her to superstar status.

“Pretty impressive,” said Mark Hennig, trainer of Don’t Forget Gil. “In fact, very impressive.”

Don’t Forget Gil, a New York-bred daughter of Kafwain, owns a pair of stakes victories in the restricted East View Stakes at Aqueduct and the Grade 3 Florida Oaks at Tampa Bay Downs earlier this year, but finished a disappointing eighth in the Grade 2 Black-Eyed Susan at Pimlico the day before the Preakness.

“She got sick a few days after the race, so maybe she was coming down with something,” said Hennig of Don’t Forget Gil. “She’s had a busy year and a few miles on the van, and it kind of made us choose to stay home. This will be her first time running at her home track since she broke her maiden, so we’re coming back to a place where she’s had success.”

Malibu Prayer, a daughter of Malibu Moon, will be making her stakes debut in the Mother Goose after just four starts, including a 13-length maiden victory at Aqueduct on April 17 and a 7¼-length allowance win at Philadelphia Park on June 2.

“The race seems to be more about Rachel Alexandra, but Malibu Prayer is a filly that on her own merit probably deserves a chance,” said Jonathan Thomas, assistant to trainer Todd Pletcher.

Hopeful Image, a daughter of Gulch, has three victories in 13 starts, with her best finish in a graded stakes race a third behind Justwhistledixie in the Grade 2 Bonnie Miss at Gulfstream Park on March 27. Her most recent stakes appearance was a sixth-place finish behind Gozzip Girl in the Grade 2 Sands Point on May 30.