btw: Did you notice who came in 2nd and 3rd after Zenyatta? BOTH were TURF horses. The fact that synthetic and turf-running horses have a decidedly large advantage over dirt horses is clearly shown by what top racehorse came in the money and what top racehorse was out of the money in the Breeders Cup BOTH this year AND last year. Turf translates better to synthetics (because of the similarities), so the turf and synthetic-running horses did significantly better than the dirt-running horses. Synthetic tracks cannot be the medium for accurate comparison of true ability. THEREFORE, it would be UNFAIR to judge "greatness" in this year's (and last year's) Breeders Cup since many of the top horses were/are dirt horses!
(Also the key fact that 2 of the top horses in the world: Sea The Stars and Rachel Alexandra did not even run in the Breeders' Cup this year!)
What Pixie Poet said is all true:
"Rachel Alexandra beat:
more horses, in more races, against more males, over the competitions' prefered track surface, in more race tracks, in more states, in faster times, with larger winning margins, while setting new stakes records, and coming within a second of track records, with higher Beyer Speed figures ... ALL YEAR ... "
But ZENYATTA - beat better horses in the best race of the year. And, she's undefeated in 14 starts. True, the undefeated shouldn't matter since most of those starts were last year... but what they do is put her in that upper echelon of horses.
In most years, Rachel would have had Horse of the Year sewn up. But this year, there was one horse in the gate on Breeders' Cup day that could derail her - but only with a victory over males in the race of the year. And Zenyatta did.
If we're going to recognize pussy-foot campaigns with one big start with Horse of the Year over campaigns when horses scaled new heights, tried new things, did the remarkable... then what's next?
First of all, anyone who lends any credence to Andrew Beyer's illustrious speed figure's is crazy. If we based win's and losses on his speed figure's, Zenyatta would be 0-14 instead of 14-0. All those speed figures and track records that are being put up for Rachel are fine, but ultimately it's about win's and losses, and who you beat in those win's and losses. The way Macho Again and Bullsbay looked in the Clark Handicap today, and some of both of their recent races, doesn't really say much for Rachel's Woodward victory. It frankly exposes it as having been soft competition. Zenyatta clearly beat a much better group of male's in one race than Rachel has beaten in three. The level of male competition that Rachel has beaten doesn't even touch what Zenyatta accomplished. Sorry Pixie Poet, all those speed numbers are fine, but it doesn't say much about the "quality of competition factor." Zenyatta should absolutely be HOY.
Rachel deserves HOY more than Zenyatta because:
In this 2009 year alone, Rachel Alexandra:
1) has set TWO stakes records for time in: Martha Washington, Mother Goose.... See More
2) has set TWO stakes records for largest winning margin in: Kentucky Oaks, Mother Goose
3) was the ONLY horse (male or female) ever to win the Preakness from the far outside gate
4) was the ONLY female EVER to win the Woodward
5) TWICE, came within 1 second of breaking the TRACK RECORDS (at Belmont and Monmouth)
6) had the HIGHEST Beyer Speed rating this year of 116. (The Haskell)
Rachel Alexandra beat:
more horses, in more races, against more males, over the competitions' prefered track surface, in more race tracks, in more states, in faster times, with larger winning margins, while setting new stakes records, and coming within a second of track records, with higher Beyer Speed figures ... ALL YEAR ...