Beyer and Zenyatta

[Rich Curtis]

As a start (repeat: start), here are three columns and a radio interview. I took the columns from the Washington Post, which gets first bite at these apples. The DRF has been known to add some polish later. Indeed, they made a change to the column posted here the other day.
 

By Andrew Beyer
Friday, November 6, 2009
 
ARCADIA, CALIF. After Rachel Alexandra dominated much of the U. S. racing season, it is finally Zenyatta\'s moment to take center stage. The 5-year-old mare, who has won all 13 of her races with a powerful late kick, will face males for the first time when she runs Saturday in the Breeders\' Cup Classic.
 
Zenyatta is the biggest star in two days of racing at Santa Anita that include 14 stake races with more than $25 million in purse money. But there are substantial reasons to doubt that she can beat male rivals as Rachel Alexandra did in the spring and summer.
 
Trainer John Shirreffs has given Zenyatta an ultra-conservative campaign this season, racing her four times on the synthetic tracks she loves, always against small fields of overmatched fillies and mares. Zenyatta didn\'t blow away this competition, and her speed figures were unexceptional. Her modest winning margins were partly the result of her catch-\'em-at-the-wire style, but nevertheless she has not looked as impressive as she was in her best efforts of 2008. It requires a giant leap of faith to conclude, from her 2009 form, that Zenyatta can beat the Classic field that includes the best U.S. males -- Summer Bird and Quality Road -- and a pair of high-class Europeans. It is preposterous that she is the 5-to-2 morning-line favorite. Zenyatta\'s main advantage is that she has proven herself on synthetic tracks while her principal rivals have not. This is an issue that handicappers will confront in every Breeders\' Cup event on Santa Anita\'s Pro-Ride surface: How do you evaluate horses such as Summer Bird and Quality Road who have never raced on a synthetic track? How do you view European turf specialists running on Pro-Ride?
 
The 2008 Breeders\' Cup at Santa Anita provided limited but clear evidence with which to answer these questions. Dirt specialists who were unproven on synthetics were unable to win, but turf horses made the transition effectively. The best American filly sprinter, Indian Blessing, was almost unbeatable on dirt and lost to the turf specialist Ventura. Europeans ran 1-2 in the Classic. The major prep races for this year\'s Breeders\' Cup added more support to this premise: On a synthetic track, disregard the dirt runners and respect the turfers. That will be my strategy for the entire Breeders\' Cup.
 
If the 2009 Classic had been run on dirt, Summer Bird and Quality Road would have been the standouts. On Pro-Ride, I\'m throwing them both out. I\'ll take a stand against Zenyatta. I\'ll throw out all of the males who have been racing well on the California synthetic tracks. (They\'re a mediocre lot; a third-rate European invader beat the Californians in the recent Goodwood Stakes.) That leaves the two European entrants, Rip Van Winkle and Twice Over. Rip Van Winkle won two straight Grade I stakes in England after losing by a length to the continent\'s superstar, See the Stars. He, not Zenyatta, is the class of the Classic field.
 
The difficulty of comparing horses\' performances on different surfaces, and of comparing European form with U.S. form, makes many of the Breeders\' Cup races very difficult. But at least a couple of them appear clear-cut:
 
Sprint: Zensational, the California-based front-runner, is a 7-to-5 favorite in the morning line. Many bettors looking for an upset scenario think Zensational could get into a suicidal duel with the speedy Fatal Bullet, and set up the race for one of several stretch-runners in the field.
 
This popular view of the Sprint is wrong. Fatal Bullet is the fastest and best horse in the field, and he is going to dominate Zensational. Zensational has scored his three stakes victories by getting loose against moderate fields without serious early pressure. In none of them has he run his opening quarter-mile faster than 22 seconds. By contrast, Fatal Bullet has encountered fast front-runners in almost all of his races. Last year he dueled through the first quarter-mile of the Sprint in 21.28 seconds and held to finish second. That was the only time in 10 starts that he has lost a synthetic-track race at 6 1/2 furlongs or less. The Sprint field is traditionally filled with speedsters who produce a destructive fast pace. But some of the country\'s best sprinters have bypassed this event because they are dirt specialists ill-suited to the Santa Anita track. Fatal Bullet won\'t have to work as hard as he usually does to get the lead. I\'ll play him in exactas on top of the stretch-runners Gayego and Capt. Candyman Can.
 
Dirt Mile: The most formidable milers at Santa Anita this weekend have been entered in the Classic, where they can shoot for a $5 million purse instead of $1 million in the misnamed Dirt Mile. Six of the nine U.S. runners in this event have never won a stakes race on a synthetic track. Against such a weak lineup, Mastercraftsman is a standout.
 
The Irish runner has faced the best competition in Europe and has won four Grade I stakes; he tuned up for his visit to Santa Anita by winning a race over Polytrack by five lengths. He deserves to be a short-priced favorite, and probably will be. The logical exacta horse is probably Bullsbay, but there will be good value on Furthest Land, who is 2 for 2 on synthetic tracks, who earned a high speed figure in his last start and is 20 to 1 in the morning line.
 
By Andrew Beyer
Saturday, December 26, 2009
 
A confrontation between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta would have generated more attention and excitement than any horse race in years. But because the two great females didn\'t face each other on the track, their fans are now pouring their passions into the debate over which one deserves to be the horse of the year.
 
With balloting for the Eclipse Awards underway, some voters wish that they were allowed to designate joint champions. But many people on each side of the debate believe that there is only one rightful winner, and they are vociferous in their opinions. Usually, the key question in such debates is the most basic one: Who was the better horse? Who would have won in a head-to-head showdown? I would normally answer this question by judging which horse ran faster.
 
But the traditional measurements are irrelevant because America\'s two best thoroughbreds excelled on different surfaces. Rachel Alexandra made her reputation on dirt, while Zenyatta raced on California\'s synthetic tracks. If they had faced each other on dirt, the winner probably would have been Rachel Alexandra; on a synthetic track, Zenyatta. So voters must decide which filly had the better 2009 season. There should be no real debate on this question: Rachel Alexandra did.
 
Her campaign was, in my opinion, the best ever by a U.S.-based filly. The other great fillies of the modern era -- such as Ruffian, Personal Ensign, Lady\'s Secret and Azeri -- made their reputations by dominating members of their own sex but didn\'t distinguish themselves against males. Rachel Alexandra challenged males in three Grade I stakes -- the Preakness, the Haskell Invitational and the Woodward -- and won them all. She trounced Summer Bird, the best male 3-year-old, by six lengths. Overall, she won her eight starts by a combined total of 65 lengths. Zenyatta made five starts, all in her home base of California, and won them by a combined margin of 6 3/4 lengths. She scored four wins against soft filly-and-mare competition before she ended her career by winning the Breeders\' Cup Classic, becoming the first member of her sex to capture America\'s richest race. Her claim to the horse of the year title rests almost entirely on that performance. (The Eclipse Awards honor the best performers in a given year; they are not lifetime achievement awards, so Zenyatta\'s illustrious 2008 season and her 14-for-14 career record are not part of the debate.)
 

 Zenyatta\'s admirers describe her Classic win in extravagant terms. Greg Avioli, president of the Breeders\' Cup, called it \"arguably the greatest performance in the 26-year history of the event.\" This is something of an overstatement. The male synthetic-track specialists behind Zenyatta were an undistinguished group. (Second-rate horses had won the two big California stakes that led up to the Cup.) Moreover, Zenyatta\'s eye-catching last-to-first rally was not an extraordinary feat on a synthetic track that generally favors runners with such a style.
 
Nevertheless, it was a commendable and historic performance, and fans can reasonably debate whether Zenyatta\'s Classic victory was enough to trump Rachel\'s ambitious campaign and her three Grade I victories over males. However, many of Zenyatta\'s supporters frame a different argument: Zenyatta deserves the title because she won the sport\'s definitive championship event while her rival ducked it. Ray Paulick, the respected editor of the online Paulick Report, supported his choice by declaring: \"Zenyatta showed up and turned in a performance for the ages. Rachel Alexandra remained in her stall, resting on her own historic achievements earlier in the year.\"
 
It is unfair to accuse owner Jess Jackson of ducking anything. He sought out the toughest possible challenges for Rachel Alexandra, but he drew the line at running her over \"plastic,\" his contemptuous description of the Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita.
 
Zenyatta\'s owner, trainer and fans argue that participants in the Breeders\' Cup have to accept the conditions at the track that hosts the event. If the 2009 Cup had been contested over a dirt track, Zenyatta would have been there.
 
In thoroughbred racing, nobody decrees the races that decide championships. Races take on championship significance when owners and trainers recognize their importance and support them. The Classic is a premier event because running 1 1/4 miles on dirt is regarded as the definitive test of American thoroughbreds. If the Breeders\' Cup organization changed the distance to two miles, nobody would recognize it as a legitimate championship race.
 
When the Breeders\' Cup chose Santa Anita as its host track for both 2008 and 2009, the organization -- and much of the racing community -- thought the Pro-Ride surface would be a fair test that would allow the best horses to win. This expectation was wrong. (And Jackson was proved right to have had qualms about running his horses there.) In those two Breeders\' Cups, a total of 43 horses ran on the Pro-Ride after making their previous start on dirt. All 43 lost. Horses who were high-class stakes winners on dirt but had no proven form on synthetic surfaces were frequently trounced. There was no correlation between excellence on dirt and excellence on the synthetic track.
 
The large majority of U.S. horses are bred for dirt and compete principally on dirt in a nation whose racing history has been made on dirt. It is absurd to describe a race as a true championship test when America\'s best dirt runners have little chance to win. Under these conditions, neither Zenyatta\'s win nor Rachel Alexandra\'s absence should keep Rachel from being recognized as the best horse of 2009.
 
By Andrew Beyer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 29, 2010; 11:27 PM
 
LOS ANGELES
 
Californians have always loved their thoroughbred stars, but no horse in many years has excited them as Zenyatta has. They will roar for her at Hollywood Park on Saturday, when she makes her final appearance in her home state and tries to win her 19th consecutive race.
 
Zenyatta inspires fierce passions. When she defeated males in the Breeders\' Cup Classic last fall, her fans hailed the performance as one of the best in the history of the event - and maybe in the history of the sport. When the mare subsequently lost the horse of the year title to Rachel Alexandra, her partisans reacted with white-hot anger. The blogosphere is regularly filled with sharp rebukes for anybody who demeans Zenyatta or even suggests she is not one of the greatest racehorses of all time.
 
Compiling an 18-for-18 career record is an extraordinary feat. Horse races contain so many potential pitfalls that no high-class U. S. horse has put together such a streak since Hindoo in 1881. Nevertheless (at the risk of inflaming the blogosphere), I could not put Zenyatta on a list of all-time great racehorses.
 
My judgment is based partly on the fact that she has compiled her record by running mostly against moderate female competition - such as the field in Lady\'s Secret Stakes on Saturday. But the main reason for questioning Zenyatta\'s place in history is the fact she is a synthetic-track specialist, albeit the best in the brief history of these surfaces. In my view, it is a dubious distinction to be the poster girl for the surfaces that have robbed the sport here of its unique character.
 

 California once had the most exciting and vibrant racing in the nation, and East vs. West rivalries animated the sport for decades. While California never had the quality of bloodstock that populated the New York tracks, it had something else: speed. The dirt racing strips in the West were fast and speed-favoring, and trainers accordingly honed horses\' speed by training them hard and fast. Jockeys rode aggressive from the gate, and the early pace of races was quicker than in any other racing jurisdiction on the planet. The nature of the game was breathtaking, and fans loved it.
 
When horses toughened by this style of racing came East, they often ran away from their supposedly classier rivals. Fast horses such as Precisionist, Winning Colors, Sunday Silence, Bayakoa, Criminal Type, Silver Charm and Congaree advertised the virtues of California racing.
 
When California\'s racing regulators mandated that traditional dirt tracks be replaced by synthetic surfaces as of 2008, they didn\'t anticipate the consequence of their decision, but they essentially legislated speed out of the game. On the new synthetic surfaces, raw speed was not an asset and sometimes was a significant liability.
 
Jockeys adjusted accordingly. Horses would typically travel at a moderate pace until their acceleration in the stretch decided the race. In the 16 Breeders\' Cups races run over Santa Anita\'s synthetic surface in 2008 and 2009, not a single front-runner wound up in the winner\'s circle, and most races were won by a horse rallying from far behind. Zenyatta\'s ability to unleash an exceptional late burst of speed makes her so potent on synthetic tracks. In the stretch run of the Breeders\' Cup Classic, she flew past some rivals who had distinguished themselves as powerful finishers. But just twice has she ventured outside of California to run on dirt, beating a good field of fillies at Oaklawn Park in 2008 and a weak group there this year.
 
There is still no evidence she is as potent on dirt as she is on synthetics. Probably she isn\'t; dirt and synthetics are so different that few horses are top-class on both. (The 0-for-43 record of horses making the transition from dirt to synthetics in the Santa Anita Breeders Cups laid to rest the cliche that \"a good horse can run on anything.\")
 
Most racing fans regret that owner Jerry Moss and trainer John Shirreffs have been so conservative in their management of Zenyatta that they didn\'t give her more opportunities to prove herself on dirt. (If the mare had gone East to confront a below-her-prime Rachel Alexandra this summer, she might have won the Zenyatta vs. Rachel debate once and for all.) However, after Zenyatta\'s final Hollywood appearance, Moss and Shirreffs plan to run her against the nation\'s best males over the dirt at Churchill Downs Nov. 6.
 
This Breeders\' Cup Classic will be the defining race of her life, and if she wins (or even loses a close one), she can silence all of the skeptics. I doubt that she will. If Zenyatta retires without beating top-class competition on dirt, how will history view her?
 
A few years from now, the distinction of excelling on synthetic tracks may not mean much. Amid growing disillusionment with synthetics, Santa Anita this fall is replacing its track with dirt. Hollywood Park will eventually be turned into a real-estate development. At that point there will be only two racetracks in the United States, both with short meetings, that offer Grade I or Grade II stakes on synthetic surfaces: Del Mar and Keeneland.
 
When racing fans of the future look back at the record of a mare who excelled on long-forgotten substances called Pro-Ride and Cushion Track, they are apt to regard Zenyatta as a historical curiosity rather than an all-time great racehorse.
 
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After 19 consecutive wins, horse racing\'s star Zenyatta came up a head short at the Breeders\' Cup on Saturday. Still, Zenyatta has been called one of the greatest fillies who ever raced. The Washington Post\'s Andy Beyer talks about Zenyatta\'s untimely loss and the future of the American horse racing industry.
Copyright © 2010 National Public Radio®. For personal, noncommercial use only. See Terms of Use. For other uses, prior permission required.
 
NEAL CONAN, host:
 
Last week, the great thoroughbred Zenyatta ran for history. In her last race, she put her 19-race winning streak on the line against the best males in the world in the Breeders\' Cup Classic. As usual, the big mare broke slowly out of the gate and seemed to be impossibly far behind before her patented late charge.
 
(Soundbite of Breeders\' Cup)
 
Mr. TREVOR DENMAN (Race Track Announcer, ESPN): Zenyatta on the outside. Lookin At Lucky. Blame. Zenyatta, Zenyatta, Zenyatta and Blame, Blame trying to hold on. Blame and Zenyatta. Blame has won it. Zenyatta ran her heart out but had to settle for second.
 
CONAN: She came up maybe a stride short. Trevor Denman with the call on ESPN. If you watched the race and have questions about her jockey\'s tactics or about the legacy of Zenyatta, give us a call. 800-989-8255. Email us talk@npr.org. You can also join the conversation on our website. That\'s at npr.org. Click on TALK OF THE NATION.
 
Andy Beyer writes about horseracing from time to time in The Washington Post. He created the Beyer Speed Figures you see in the daily racing form and joins us today from his home in Washington. Nice to have you back, Andy.
 
Mr. ANDY BEYER (Horseracing Columnist, The Washington Post): Hi, Neal.
 
CONAN: And jockey Mike Smith minced no words, blaming himself for waiting too long to make the charge.
 
Mr. BEYER: Oh, he was too hard on himself. I don\'t think that there was any real excuse for Zenyatta, and I wouldn\'t second-guess his ride at all. I mean, that\'s her style. She always comes from far behind. And, you know, I mean, any time a horse rallies and just misses, you could always say, gee, the jockey should have moved sooner. I mean...
 
(Soundbite of laughter)
 
Mr. BEYER: ...you know, it doesn\'t work that way. She just wasn\'t quite quick enough and - but she just got beaten fair and square.
 
CONAN: That\'s a bit of a cavalry charge, too, 12 horses in the field.
 
Mr. BEYER: Right. A horse with that style is always going to have some kind of an issue. If the horse tries to save grand and get through on - toward the inside, he or she is going to, you know, have to pick her way through traffic. If you try to circle the field, you\'re going to lose ground. You know, being a slow, late-running horse just has some built-in disadvantages. I mean, it\'s a remarkable achievement that with that style, Zenyatta won 19 races in a row, but, you know, on dirt and against top-level competition, it\'s a lot harder to do.
 
CONAN: On dirt, what was the significance of that?
 
Mr. BEYER: Well, she had ran 17 of her career races on synthetic racetracks in California that - whose nature is fundamentally different from dirt, that racing on the synthetic tracks gives much less of an advantage to speed horses to front-running types than dirt does. And it tends to favor horses with, you know, Zenyatta\'s late-running style. So she was - she had won twice on the dirt against fillies, against lesser competition, but this was a different game from the one she\'d been playing in California.
 
CONAN: On the other hand, she had also beaten the boys in this race last year?
 
Mr. BEYER: She had, but that was on her home track, on a synthetic surface. And I think, you know, I felt coming into this race, you know, that she was probably going to be up against trying to make the transition to dirt and, you know, with her style.
 
Mr. BEYER: She is - got, obviously, that electric style, but also a lot of personality. People really took to her.
 
Mr. BEYER: She does. She, you know, she really has a presence about her. I mean, she\'s big. She\'s got a - you know, she\'s got a personality. She\'s a ham. You know, after a win, something - you know, her jockey, Mike Smith, would take her in front of the grandstand and she would just kind of, like, bow to the crowd. You know, people loved her.
 
CONAN: You talked about her legacy. If she had won that race, would she have deserved to be considered among the very greats of all time?
 
Mr. BEYER: No. You know, when she was winning those 19 races in a row, a lot of people had extrapolated from her ability to, you know, to make these rallies and always get up at the wire, that she could win anything, that she would have been capable of beating the, you know, the best horses who ever lived. This race put her abilities in proper perspective. It was - you know, it was obviously a very good race. But she\'s approximately as good as the winner, Blame, you know, who, you know, who beat her in a photo finish. And no, I don\'t think, you know, anyone would reasonably put Blame on a list of the top 100 horses of all time. So I think that it is proper to rank her as maybe the best or, you know, nearly the best female horse that the U.S. has ever seen. But she doesn\'t rate up there with the greatest males.
 
CONAN: So up there with the Ruffians and the Rachel Alexandras of the world?
 
Mr. BEYER: Yes. I mean, you can make - I mean, you could make an argument - an unresolvable argument either way. I mean, personally, I think that Rachel Alexandra, in her top form of last season, would have beaten Zenyatta. But the Zenyatta fans are equally adamant on the subject. We\'ll never know that answer.
 
CONAN: Well, I saw Ruffian run in - barring injury, I was - I loved her. Came again - you never saw that so often on a horse\'s form, came again - in other words, was passed and then went back and took the lead.
 
Mr. BEYER: Right. And just in the terms of raw speed, I mean, Ruffian was probably the most gifted of all the fillies and mares. But, you know, she didn\'t beat males the way, you know, Zenyatta and Rachel did. So it\'s not an argument we\'re ever going to get a good answer to.
 
CONAN: Well, it\'s a nice to have it with you, Andy. Let\'s get some callers in on the argument. Bo\'s calling from Russellville, Arkansas.
 
BO (Caller): Yes. Can you hear me?
 
CONAN: Yes. You\'re on the air. Go ahead.
 
BO: Thank you. I\'ve been following racing for about 40 years. And when I was 14 years old, Secretariat was in his three-year-old year, and he was like my Peyton Manning. So - and on a good day, I think he was the best ever. But I don\'t think the loss Saturday should diminish Zenyatta at all. I mean, she came from so far back against a tremendous field, and she almost got it done. So I think that she deserves a place in history, even though, you know, on - maybe on her best day, she\'s not as good as another horse, but she\'s awful good. And I tell you, it\'s really hard at grade-one level to win 19 races in a row.
 
CONAN: Grade-one level, that\'s the very top level in horseracing. And, of course, the Breeders\' Cup Classic, I guess, Andy, at the very top of that.
 
Mr. BEYER: That\'s correct. And I am not putting Zenyatta down. I\'m just saying that the race yesterday - whether she won by a nose or lost by a head, you know, that pretty much defined how good she is. And she\'s a terrific mare. She\'s no Secretariat.
 
CONAN: Bo, thanks very much for the call. As a member of the horseracing industry, writes Emily in Cincinnati, I just wanted to know if Andy thinks there\'s any chance, now that she\'s lost and has nothing left to prove, that the Mosses will give her a chance to redemption and consider heading to Dubai for the World Cup?
 
Mr. BEYER: You know, I doubt it. I mean, she is at the end of her six-year-old season. You know, and regrettably, you know, the Mosses and trainer, John Shirreffs have been so conservative in their management of Zenyatta that they -you know, they haven\'t - you know, for whatever reason, they haven\'t taken on, you know, on many - you know, many adventuresome challenges, you know, except for the, you know, the two starts and the Breeders\' Cup this year and last. So it would be - I think it would be a little out of character for them. And I just don\'t see it happening to - with her as a seven-year-old.
 
CONAN: Don\'s on the line, calling from Milltown in Maryland.
 
DON (Caller): Hi.
 
CONAN: Go ahead.
 
DON: It\'s a pleasure to be on the air with Andy Beyer, and you, too.
 
(Soundbite of laughter)
 
DON: I think no matter what happened in that race, with all the fanfare and so forth that\'s been going on over the last two years, that it\'s done a great deal for our sport. It\'s a dying sport in a lot of people\'s eyes, and I\'m afraid that - my home track happens to be Charleston, West Virginia. And if I see a horse that\'s won three in a row, that\'s quite a phenomenon. Winning 19 in a row is quite an accomplishment, even if you\'re talking about Peppers Pride, who raced only against the New Mexico breeds. But I thought it was phenomenal. I thought it was interesting last year when the Eclipse Awards came around between Rachel and Zenyatta. And I think - also, I really enjoyed you, Andrew. I think you must have done well Friday. Your comments in the (unintelligible) were nice.
 
CONAN: The Eclipse Award, by the way, for the best horses of the year - horses, fillies and colts. Andy Beyer, we were lucky to see her.
 
Mr. BEYER: Yes. And, you know, she really captured people\'s imagination. You know, I was in California for her final race out there. And - you know, the - I mean, there was just, you know, an electricity, you know, that, you know, ran through the whole racetrack. You know, and the same was true of Rachel Alexandra last year.
 
You know, some of - I mean, her races, you know, rank as some of the most exciting that I\'ve ever seen. So I think that both of them have shown that, you know, I mean, horseracing still has a pulse, I mean, that, you know, great horses and great races really, you know, really can, you know, get, you know, not only hardcore fans, but, you know, the average general sports fan really captivated. I wish we had more like them.
 
CONAN: Don, thanks very much for the call. Appreciate it.
 
DON: Thank you.
 
CONAN: We\'re talking with Andy Beyer about Zenyatta and horseracing. You\'re listening to TALK OF THE NATION, from NPR News.
 
And Andy, Don called from Maryland, where he said it seems his sport is dying. I wanted to ask you about another piece you wrote: After a little-noticed -outside the state of Maryland, anyway - a little-noticed result in last Tuesday\'s elections, where the county of Anne Arundel voted to approve a slots casino at a mall, effectively barring it from the racetrack, Laurel, and pretty much, well, transforming the horseracing industry in the state of Maryland.
 
Mr. BEYER: Well, it\'s - I mean, this is a tough time for the horseracing business. And a lot of racetracks are, you know, are in a position that, you know, that they feel they can\'t make money or even survive, you know, without revenue from slot machines. And that is certainly the case at Laurel. The - you know, I mean, business has really dwindled there. It\'s a money-losing operation. And, I mean, it\'s not that their fate is - was strictly the victim of bad luck. The track has been the victim of a lot of bad management and bad decisions over the years.
 
But, you know, they\'re not a viable operation anymore. Now, Pimlico is because of the Preakness. And so what is probably going to happen is that Laurel will shut down. They\'ll just have a simulcast facility on that site, and Maryland racing will be shrunk to probably like a two-month meeting at Pimlico that surrounds the Preakness. I mean, it\'s sad, but, I mean, it is just a fact of life of modern racing that there are a lot of tracks that aren\'t viable anymore.
 
CONAN: If New York and California were the major leagues of horseracing, and just a few years ago, Maryland was AA or AAA.
 
Mr. BEYER: It certainly was. I mean, Laurel has a 99-year history. I mean, there was a, you know, a time when the - when Laurel\'s great race, the Washington, D.C. International, was known around the world. They had two-year-old races that got, you know, great horses like Secretariat, you know, came to Laurel to run in the fall. And, you know, but the - there\'s just more competition from other tracks, from other forms of gambling. And just a lot of these once-thriving mid-level tracks and even once-thriving upper-level tracks just can\'t compete anymore.
 
CONAN: Let\'s get one last caller in. This is Sandy(ph), Sandy with us from Columbia, Maryland.
 
SANDY: Yes. My brother is really the aficionado of racing. He co-owns a number of horses, but - so I got interested because of him and saw Secretariat run his three races to get his Triple Crown. But I don\'t think I\'ve ever been as excited as watching Zenyatta race her races. And if she\'d had two more strides, she would have won.
 
CONAN: I think maybe one more stride, she would\'ve won. But...
 
SANDY: Right.
 
CONAN: ...it was awfully close. She put up a game effort. It was certainly not for want of trying.
 
SANDY: No. And that\'s why - I think that\'s why she\'s so loved. And I think that women are absolutely behind her because she\'s so big, she\'s so flashy and she comes from behind. And right on that stretch, it\'s just amazing.
 
CONAN: Plays the same game that was played by the great Cigar or Forego back in the day.
 
SANDY: Right.
 
Mr. BEYER: Right. People - you know, racing fans love, you know, two aspects of this game that - Zenyatta embodied one: You know, females racing against males always...
 
SANDY: Right.
 
Mr. BEYER: ...excite the racing public. And horses with that style who come from a mile behind, you know, there\'s nothing more exciting. So she put them together, and people loved it.
 
CONAN: Sandy, thanks very much for the call. And Andy Beyer, as always, thanks for your time.
 
Mr. BEYER: Good to talk to you, Neal. Bye-bye.
 
CONAN: Andy Beyer writes about horseracing from time to time in The Washington Post.
 
Tomorrow, NPR\'s Laura Sullivan on her two-part investigation on how Arizona\'s controversial immigration law was written.
 
This is NPR News.

[jimbo66]

Rich,

I didn\'t want to comment as you went back and forth the last few days, because I think I have bored the board here with my opinions of Zenyatta, but what is the point you are making?  I read these carefully, and I don\'t come to the conclusion of \"Zenyatta hater\" or \"biased against Zenyatta\".  

He feels her speed figures don\'t match up against the all time great male horses, that Rachel, at her prime, on dirt, would have beat her, while Zenyatta would have beat Rachel on synthetic, that last year\'s \"Pro-Ride\" Classic was not up to par with historical BC Classic fields, and that she was roughly on par with Blame, talent wise, and that Blame is not a top 100 all time horse.  

I don\'t know, but I have no problem with any of those assertions.  I think somebody can reasonably debate the other side of a few of them, I guess, but I don\'t see some huge bias here.

Besides Zenyatta\'s unbelieveable consistency, the other amazing thing about her is her ability to get even some hard core gamblers to \"emote\" when the subject of her skills and all-time placing come up.  Many on this board, who I would guess fall into the category of \'hardened gamblers\" have such strong positive opinions of her and get immediately defensive when somebody takes an alternative view of her, it shocks me.  We have created this class of horseplayer called \"Zenyatta haters\", which include anybody that takes an alternative view.  I guess I hate every horse that beats me, and any horse that I bet on that runs like crap, but not specifically Zenyatta.  I am pretty sure Miff and TGJB aren\'t \"zenyatta haters\" either, but I won\'t speak for them.

Funny how we even want to challenge HOTY criteria and say that \"it has never clearly been defined\" to allow this year\'s award to go to Zenyatta.  I guess it is correct that the criteria is not specifically stated to preclude this from being \"who has done the most for the sport\", but nobody over the last 20 years has tried to make that the criteria.  IT has been who has had the best year.  Blame arguably has that criteria in his favor this year.  

Jim

[P-Dub]

Zenyatta isn\'t quite as good as Blame, because she lost by a nose.

So by that same logic, I guess Secratariat isn\'t as good as Onion.

Beyer\'s logic on several points was strange, this being one of them.

Not getting into this all over again, but Beyer makes many statements that are ridiculous.

[Boscar Obarra]

Yeah, I caught that one too, chalked it up to advancing age.

 Another thought, if there\'s no judgment required in hoty voting , then why bother? Plug the years results into a computer program and it will very happily spit out the winner. Save on all the postage and envelopes too.

[magicnight]

The thing that stuck out to me was all of the \"you knows\" in the interview transcript. No wonder you never see him on TV.

[TGJB]

In the quote I saw (and maybe I missed another) Andy said she was \"approximately as good as\" Blame. Regardless of his or anyone else\'s assessment of the relative ability of those two horses, that\'s a separate question than who should get HOTY, which is not based on just one race, otherwise they would call it Horse Of The Breeders\' Cup Classic.

[kensharkey]

the scarecrows logic, meaningless.

[P-Dub]

kensharkey Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> the scarecrows logic, meaningless.


Just give it a rest already.  JB told you to knock it off.  Unless you have something to say, which is doubtful, put a lid on it. What are you, 9??

[Rich Curtis]

Beyer wrote:

  \"Zenyatta\'s eye-catching last-to-first rally [in the 2009 BC Classic] was not an extraordinary feat on a synthetic track that generally favors runners with such a style.\"

  OK, I\'ll start with this: Beyer\'s attempt to devalue this performance on the basis that the racetrack \"generally favors runners\" with Zenyatta\'s running style. Zenyatta came from last to win this race. Zenyatta came from 15 lengths behind to win this race. Can anybody tell me:

1: How many synthetic races were run at SA that meet.

2: How many of them were won from 15 or more lengths behind.

3: How many were won from last place.

4: How in the world this sentence of Beyer\'s ever got past an editor in the first place.

5: How this sentence could still be on the Washington Post website a year later.

[MonmouthGuy]

It\'s over Johnny, it\'s over.

[Rich Curtis]

Jimbo,

  My point is to defend my statement that Beyer\'s Zenyatta writing is disgraceful.

  I agree with you that you, JB, and Miff do not hate Zenyatta. In fact, Miff has been very nice to Zenyatta on more than one occasion. JB is attached to Rachel, and I don\'t blame him a bit. I would be too.

 Oh, one more thing for now:

  Beyer:

  \"I\'m just saying that the race yesterday - whether she won by a nose or lost by a head, you know, that pretty much defined how good she is.\"

  I\'m wondering what JB thinks of \"defining\" 6YO mares in this manner. Seems to me it opens the door to a lot of stuff that should not be happening--including \"defining\" Rachel selectively, or \"defining\" Beyer off of this radio interview.

[TGJB]

I think this has migrated from a discussion about \"facts\" buttressing Z\'s case for to one about Beyer\'s writing. Re Andy, picking one line uttered in a live Q and A is of questionable relevance-- try it some time, under the pressure of speaking in public. He probably would have rephrased if he was writing.

As for the articles overall, I found them pretty measured, and in general agree with them. Do I agree with everything? Probably not. Did he get a detail wrong about the races on Pro-Ride? Maybe. Is it really relevant?

[RICH]

\"JB, and Miff do not hate Zenyatta. In fact, Miff has been very nice to Zenyatta on more than one occasion\"

Maybe it\'s me, but I had to laugh at that

[Rich Curtis]

JB wrote:

\"He probably would have rephrased if he was writing.\"

Beyer in writing, pre-race:

\"This Breeders\' Cup Classic will be the defining race of her life, and if she wins (or even loses a close one), she can silence all of the skeptics. I doubt that she will. If Zenyatta retires without beating top-class competition on dirt, how will history view her?\"

Zenyatta wins 19 races in a row. She wins 9 Grade Ones in a row. She wins the 2009 Breeders\' Cup Classic. And Beyer says she will be defined in November of her 6YO year by a race in which he believes she will not run well. Meanwhile, Rachel loses several races and, according to Beyer, it is because Rachel, a 4YO, was past her prime. No defining races there.

JB wrote:

\"I think this has migrated from a discussion about \'facts\' buttressing Z\'s case for to one about Beyer\'s writing.\"

  No. I said Beyer\'s Zenyatta writing was disgraceful. You asked me to support my view. And I am damned well going to do it. And I am going to keep on doing it until you ask me to stop.

By the way: Want to bet on which one of us has spent more time on the radio?

[TGJB]

I spend as little time as possible on the radio. One of the reasons is underscored by Andy\'s words being thrown back at him.

I said virtually the same thing about Z\'s legacy (my word) and this year\'s Classic, here, before the race. It had nothing to do with my own opinion of her, which is based on figures, as I suspect Andy\'s is.

There clearly were defining races for RA, in the sense that they shaped the way the public viewed her-- the Oaks, Preakness, Haskell, and Woodward. And I\'m pretty sure you would agree that if Z had finished fifth in her dirt Classic this year she would be \"defined\" differently by the public.