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Home / News / Blame Won Horse Of The Year In The Breeders’ Cup Classic

Blame Won Horse Of The Year In The Breeders’ Cup Classic

  • racecalling.com
  • I'm a fan
    My Favorite
  • November 19, 2010 8:06 AM
The debate figures to rage-on well into the New Year about whether or not Horse Of The Year is Blame or Zenyatta. Their respective records are similar, their abilities only a head apart.

The challenging part about this year’s award is that Zenyatta brought the Breeders’ Cup to an entirely new group of people including millions of non-racing fans. Even if the bulk of them tuned-in for just a few minutes to watch the race, no horse brought horse racing to the fore like she did since Smarty Jones and his Triple Crown bid. Is this Horse of the Year worthy? It’s worthy of something, that’s for sure.

Blame, on the other hand, defeated Zenyatta fair and square when the big money was on the line. The team with the best record doesn’t always end-up with the World Series trophy, and the same applies in horse racing. At the end of the day, I think we have to remember that horse racing is ultimately a competition and the very nature and definition of competition and sport says there will be a winner, and there will be a loser. In this case, the winner was Blame.
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Zenyatta  |  Blame  |  Garrett K. Gomez  |  Todd A. Pletcher  |  Mike E. Smith  |  Breeders' Cup Classic  |  Breeders' Cup Classic (2010)

What the Nation is saying about Blame Won Horse Of The Year In The Breeders’ Cup Classic...

In 2009 she didn't get beat by just anybody but a filly who left her heart at Saratoga runing and defeating older males.
Travis' disection of the race is slightly off when, in fact, Zenyatta did get a nose past blame at tone point in the stretch run. He considers their respective records similar but that due to the Classic win Blame should win HOY. That being the case, he fails to note that winning the Classic did not earn Zenyatta the title in 2009. Winning the Classic may not necessarily mean HOY title when only 11 of the last 26 Classic winners took home this title. There is more to winning HOY than just winning the Classic as was so displayed in 2009.
No one (outside of historians) will remember Blame but that cannot be said of the mare...Akin to the year Personality won HOY the least of the best...It happens often.
I have to quote and agree wholeheartedly with what Sports Illustrated had to say about it: "Zenyatta only enhanced her legend in her first defeat" by her incredible, incredible race. If Blame wins horse of the year, it may be because he beat out one of the greatest racehorses of all times. In that case, "Zenyatta will have to settle for Horse of a Generation".
In my selection of Zenyatta I am not demeaning Blame I actually using his great year to show that even with the bad trip (self inflicted ) she came within a neck of a horse ,Blame who I think besides for her is the best of them for HOY.
the following link is about "Prove Out" by Steve Haskin good reading-http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse-racing-steve-haskin/archive/2008/08/04/The-Unbeatable-Horse.aspx
why argue the pi
I do not endorse Blame for HOY but it does seem a close call no matter what side you are on. It is not as if Blame lost all of his starts and jumped up and ran an out of the ordinary race in the Classic. He went 4-for-5 with three Grade 1 wins in 2010 and he beat Zenyatta head-to-head. Zenyatta went 5-for-6 and brought electricity and new fans to the sport. Last year I gave Rachel Alexandra the slight edge over Zenyatta in HOY. The voting could have gone either way and the same situation exists this year. Both point of views have merit but there can only be one winner.
Unexplainable is right!! But, we do have a data point, Ghostzapper won races late and unexplainably beat out Smarty Jones for HOY. The lession here might be what happens late in the year carries more weight for HOY honors.
sorry my fault,lets try this one:"Prove Out" a royally bred son of Graustark who because of bad ankles had only one win in 27 starts going into the 1973 Woodward Stakes run at Belmont on a sloppy track at a distance of 1 1/2 miles:He beats Secretariat in a time of 2:25:4/5 which still stands today as the 2nd fastest time at that distance. Not only did he beat Secretariat he raced 5 times in 5 weeks beating the likes of Fore,Cougar II, etc. no horse of the year.If he didn't beat secretariat no one would even remember him and those that do think it was just a fluke,it wasn't ,that was a sloppy track. he got nuttin honey. My point being , do you select the BEST horse or a horse that won an important race at the end of the year? Yes I'm fully aware of what the blogger was saying and I can't believe someone who makes their living in horse racing could justify that pick using the logic used by theoretical physicist's to explain the unexplainable.
I think this blogger is saying that Blame and Zenyatta met in the end of the year championship race and since Blame came out on top he should win Horse of the Year. I favor Zenyatta for that award but I cannot argue with his logic. Dare And Go and Cigar met in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar in the summer and not in the Breeders Cup Classic. No comparison.
even though I don't agree with your conclusion to be fair you really have to look at all that Blame has done for horse racing not only this year but he may well be the savior of racing through his offspring...guess you really have to G I V E it to him as covoluted as that may seem.
Amazing! using your common sense and logic "Dare And Go" should have beaten Cigar for HOY. Nevermind that Cigar was caught in a 3 way speed duel and went the 3/4 in 1:09:1 in the 1 1/4 Pacific Classic. Oh wait they did give it to Cigar. Maybe you should alert them to this fact so they can put and asterik beside his name.
The Blame and Zenyatta haters could learn something from this blogger. You do not have to talk trash to make your opinion known.
You took the thoughts right out of my head, Nice piece.
Nice job Travis.
Excellent blog Travis. We are on opposite sides of this argument but you make your point using common sense, logic, and professionalism. Well done!
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