JC / Railbird

Champions

What It’s All About

1) Zenyatta running her record to a perfect 19 in the G1 Lady’s Secret Stakes. “Everything was a blur to me,” trainer John Shirreffs told Steve Andersen after the race. “Where’s the wire? You’re looking at her, looking at the wire. I can’t begin to describe it.” Much like the 2009 Clement Hirsch at Del Mar, the Lady’s Secret looked lost in the final yards. Until it wasn’t.

2) Goldikova winning her eleventh Group/Grade 1 race in the Prix de la Foret. Challenged by Paco Boy and Dick Turpin in the stretch, she gamely dominated going over soft ground. She’s now headed to the Breeders’ Cup, where she’ll attempt to win the Mile for an unprecedented third time.

“We are living in a small ‘golden age’ — let’s call it a gilded age,” writes Steve Dennis. “We had Zarkava, Sea The Stars, Rachel Alexandra. We have Zenyatta and Goldikova. These are true champions, these horses who win again and again, beating the best around.” Let’s enjoy.

Posted in Racing on October 3, 2010 / Tagged Champions, Distaffers, Gilded Age, Goldikova, Longchamp, Oak Tree, Records, Zenyatta

HOTY and the BC

With Zenyatta, Quality Road, and Blame expected in the Classic, it’s no secret that this year’s Breeders’ Cup will decide Horse of the Year. You could say the event is reverting to form. In the 26 runnings since its inception in 1984, only eight horses have been named HOTY without starting in a Breeders’ Cup race:

Three distaffers have won HOTY since 1984, but only Rachel Alexandra did so without a Breeders’ Cup race. She did have a Woodward Stakes start, though, as did three of the other seven HOTYs to win without the BC (Mineshaft ran in the Jockey Club Gold Cup after winning the Woodward). The Woodward Stakes turns out to be a key race in HOTY campaigns, second only to the Breeders’ Cup Classic: 12 of the 26 BC-era winners started in the Woodward en route to honors, 11 of the 20 main track male winners three and up.

Posted in Racing on October 2, 2010 / Tagged Breeders' Cup, Champions, Eclipse Awards, Horse of the Year, Racing History, Woodward Stakes

Thinking Ahead

Zipse at the Track picks up on the argument advanced earlier this month by Steeplestakes (via Equidaily), that Zenyatta has not done enough at this point in the year to be considered a Horse of the Year candidate. I suppose it’s a pleasantly diverting debate to have while we await the Breeders’ Cup, but it’s also kind of meaningless. After all, Zenyatta’s connections have made it known all along that her goal was a repeat win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (which Zipse does acknowledge). They’re all in, and their strategy will probably pay off; unlike last year, this year’s Classic will decide who’s Horse of the Year.

It’s more interesting to me that Zenyatta will likely repeat as champion older female without having started against most of this year’s top distaffers. Of the 10 Ladies’ Classic contenders ranked by DRF (PDF), she’ll have met Rinterval (second in the Hirsch, entered in the Lady’s Secret) and Zardana. She won’t have raced against Life At Ten, Unrivaled Belle, or Persistently (entered in the Beldame) or Blind Luck and Havre de Grace (entered in the Cotillion). That’s nothing to hold against Zenyatta, who can only run against those entered against her, but it is a depressing comment on how rarely the best racehorses meet on track, as is Blind Luck shipping to Parx for a stakes restricted to 3-year-old fillies instead of Hollywood or Belmont to challenge her elders.

As Chris Rossi, aka o_crunk, commenting here and in a recent Thoroughbred Times Today piece, has pointed out: The game is getting watered down. Steven Crist lays the blame partly on slots-fueled purses.

Related: There’s a very civilized discussion about Zenyatta and Andrew Beyer’s recent column happening in this comment thread.

Posted in Racing on September 30, 2010 / Tagged Blind Luck, Champions, Distaffers, Eclipse Awards, Horse of the Year, Zenyatta