Zenyatta

[martoon]

QR was an easy toss for me.  I don\'t know how everyone was picking him to beat Blame when Blame eyeballed him and drew away in a shorter race.  That plus the premature stud announcement and the changed training methods. it was easy to see the connections were not confident about this one even before the draw.  Why did people think he would beat Blame at 1 and a quarter?  To finish last though is inexcusable.

[MonmouthGuy]

Why are you posting on a Thorograph message board?

[rhagood]

Correct about gallop out, she was all spent. I don\'t blame Mike as she didn\'t take the bit early and left herself too much to do against the best dirt horses she ever faced.  This was a much tougher task than closing on a bunched up field on polytrack in last years Cup. If you want to place Blame I put it on Sherrif and Moss. They had all year to point to this race and win Horse of the Year. If it was my horse I would have shipped her to Churchill, trained and breezed up to the race including a sharper work to make sure she was comfortable on the track. I would have pulled out all the stops for this race. They just thought she was good enough to overcome everything and still win.  They were almost right but why take a chance. It sure wasn\'t Zenyatta\'s fault that she finally lost.

[miff]

Bad,

Pssst, don\'t tell anyone, some horses won\'t run a lick down inside. If you think QR is as bad as he ran today, you don\'t have a clue.

Mike

[MonmouthGuy]

nt

[martoon]

By the way.. my toss of QR not withstanding, I thought the TG analysis was really good both days on the dirt races. A lot of the prices came under as noted and the calls on Dubai Majesty and Big Drama were breathe easy bets. And 3 of the 4 choices in the classic hit the Super for the baby 10 cent super.  Hit that but just played the Classic very light as I just wanted to enjoy watching & rooting for Z to run.
i was really pleased with the analysis.  I know some guys who play the other services like HTR and they didn\'t anything either day.

[shanahan]

so true...and then it\'s left posted for...well, quite some time.  The days when the analysis goes 0 for the card - not posted.  Check the dates out on the board at the top!  TG had a big exacta once and for whatever reason it\'s still a big deal.  I\'m a TG fan, but come one guys.

I won the twin tri at Sportsmans in \'96, you shoulda been there...

[Badride]

Big Drama ran a monster.  I had the opportunity to be around BD up at Saratoga.  What a gentle horse he is.  Nice to see a nice guy like DF win that race.   Well done.

[sighthound]

Her mind seemed to wander today for the first quarter - usually she\'s way back, as you say, but she settles into a steady lick with her ears up.  Not today.

[dennish]

Life at Ten & Zenyatta had one annoyong similarity - Jerry Bailey. Velasquez was clearly trying to focus on his horse while Bailey was interrogating him during the warm up period. Pletcher said that he asked that Life at Ten be warmed up good & that didn\'t happen. If the rider had the extra time to focus, rather than being accomodative, he may have been able to save the publics money & racings embarrassment.
 Could be similar situation with Zenyatta. Early in the race she was trying to get a feel of the racing surface. Her \"dance\" was normal but I don\'t recall the \"pawing\" in other pre races. Any additional warming up by Smith could not have hurt her.
I understand TV\'s desire to bring viewers inside the heads of the participants but lets not compromise the event.

[Millennium3]

Smith said he was happy with her warmup, and having been on her for three years, he has to be given the benefit of any doubt. They way she ran bears testimony to the fact he was happy when they went into the gate.

Looking at the race again, it\'s easy to play \"what if\" about Zenyatta. But the truth is Blame actually ran just a little bit better than she did when it mattered, in fact he actually had to fully commit to kick for it sooner than she did and still held himself together. The pace was brisk but not suicidal, yet the front runners were starting to fold sooner than you\'d have thought they would have at this level of racing. So the moment of truth for the contenders which were close up came at the 5/16ths, just before coming out of the turn, instead of the preferred tactic of fully committing after you\'re out of the turn, balanced and upright. Blame, Lookin At Lucky, and Etched had to have their spots to strike already claimed and basically commit before they came out of the turn, or risk gaps closing if they\'d waited until straightening up. In that way, Zenyatta did almost exactly what she did last year: cut the corner inside and then move outside at the 3/16ths. If you watch both races from the 1/4 pole to the finish, her stretch run looks basically the same. Blame, however, had plenty of his own work to do. Once he got to his opening, it took him from the 1/4 pole to the 1/8 pole to fully beat back Lookin at Lucky. He was now fully committed, and then he still had to fend off Zenyatta, who was well out in the middle of the track. So he had to commit early and put two good ones away in succession, and yet he still kept finding more to do it. Zenyatta really put in her same run as last year in the final quarter mile - in fact she was the last one to commit, which the way this race unfolded, was an advantage. It may have taken her a bit longer to get outside, but the stretch run at Churchill is about 30 yards longer than Santa Anita. As Smith said in his press conference, he needed Blame to fold a little bit. And Blame never did.

As for Quality Road. I don\'t know about a dead rail or not, but it was clear once the gates opened his chances were slim-to-none. This was a very unhappy animal coming down the stretch the first time. He was on the wrong lead all through the first quarter mile, and his head was tilted to his right. It was clear this was never going to be his day by the time they went 10 strides into the race. Whether he was jarred up mentally by the lights, or the crowd, or whether he never fully recovered from his Met Mile, the fact is that before they went a 16th of a mile, any tickets with him on them were bound for the trash heap.

[smalltimer]

Pletcher did QR a real disservice by not running him in the Dirt Mile.  QR would have dominated that field, taken the money and eased into retirement with a little bit of dignity.  Instead, the poor animal is exposed to the world for the 10 furlong phoney he was all along.  It wasn\'t the horses fault, he\'d already shown he wanted no part of 10 furlongs.  Quality Road at a Flat Mile would have been the perfect match. \"On his best\" the most likely winner.  Laughable.....

[P-Dub]

For all of you wondering why I defend Zenyatta and Mike Smith, yesterday\'s performance couldn\'t have answered those questions any better.

That was a remarkable performance by a true champion. Squeezed right out of the gate, drops back around 20 lengths as she struggled to grab hold of the track and deal with kickback. As mentioned previously, she lost a bit of momentum dodging Quality Road and having to swerve sideways to get a clear run. Once she did, after dealing with adversity several times during the race, she threw it down as only the very best can do.

Its frustrating for her fans to play the what if game. What if: she gets a clean break, grabs a hold of the track a bit sooner, doesn\'t have to dodge QR and 7 others looking for a clear path.  But those things are part of the game. Blame had a cleaner trip on a track he loves, and he was a most deserving winner. Zenyatta made her run and Blame wouldn\'t let her go by.  The really good ones do this, and Blame is certainly that. A very good horse.

I truly believe that if they run that race 10 more times, Zenyatta wins at least 8 of them. It took a surface the opponent loves, an eventful trip from start to finish, to get her beat by a desperate nose. Its just my opinion.

She will retire with her reputation intact, leaving us with a performance that while a bit dissatisfying for her fans, gaining the respect from every racing fan out there. Even her detractors have finally given her the respect she deserves, and that is good to see.

I have been fortunate to watch her run at the previous 2 runnings of the BC at Santa Anita. Smalltimer and I were standing by the Santa Anita tunnel right after last year\'s Classic, and she walked right by us. Couldn\'t have been more than 5 feet away. What a thrill to be that close to one of the greats, a moment I will never forget.

I was bummed out after yesterday\'s race. I made pretty good money over the 2 days, hit the Classic tri, but that meant nothing to me. I just wanted her to win. Waking up this morning, after the sting of her defeat has been slept away, I feel much better.  All you can ask of anybody is that they give there very best effort. Zenyatta certainly did that.

Lastly, thanks to JB and his staff for a great product. You guys consistently put out the best information, and your BC information has been outstanding for years. I am leaving for Hawaii Monday morning for 12 days, and I now have a few extra bucks to spend over there. Might even justify paying the ridiculous greens fees they charge.

[martoon]

Are they definitely retiring Z?  If would be great if she would run next year now that the pressure is off the undefeated record.  And maybe run a more interesting schedule.  Why not run her one more year?  She can have babies into her 20\'s and you know the Mosses probably wont be selling any of them anyway.  So no real financial incentive to breed right away.  She\'s so huge her babies probably won\'t run til 3yo
so it\'ll be a long 4 years to see her progeny get going.  Better to enjoy another year now of racing.

[jbelfior]

P-Dub:

Hawaii for 12 days?......and miss all of the thrilling cards at Aqueduct?


Good Luck,
Joe B.