Oldest males horses to win the BC Classic were 5 years old. Zenyatta, at 6 years old, takes on 4 year olds in their prime and still puts in a phenomenal performance. She may not have raced many races against the males but as medlocke states she did, indeed, beat 21 of the best soundly. She deserves credit for that. She deserves credit for beating the remaining field in the 2010 BC Classic as well. Her prior 2010 races may have been considered prep races but, as another post states, she gave up weight to lesser experienced opponents to even the odds. She did, in fact, run two very close races which I saw first hand against Switch and Lethal Heat. It's interesting but sad to see the ugly posts that are swirling here which is why I've stayed away. There is a horse for their time and Zenyatta is the horse of our time. She brought renewed interest to the sport for those who have never attended as well as for those of us like myself who have been going to horse racing events for over 30 years. It's exciting to see people genuinely excited again about horse racing. And, it has given us renewed hope in the industry.
No fixation here or therapy icyhotboo, just a simple discussion on the benefits of going both ways. But if SA gets the Breeder Cup on a regular basis, horses will have to come west for that. Fact is we had good meets here with horses from all over prior to the synthetic.
I don't believe there is NO reason to come west. We have great weather year round, even Florida has been experiencing unusually cold winters these days. What are the real reasons that our purses aren't as big? The biggest reason is because the tracks are losing money to the casinos and the voters wouldn't approve them bringing in money with slot machines. If that had been approved, our purses probably would not have tanked. Before the age of computer betting and Indian casinos, we were competitive and had just as good of purses. I guess it's just a sign of the times. But we want to see the East coast horses out here, we want our horses to be challenged and with SA going to dirt, they should re-think coming out here don't you think?
railbird33 - The California Horse Racing Board mandated synthetic tracks, not Santa Anita. This due to a number of breakdowns at Del Mar one season. Unfortunately, the synthetic did not prove to be safer. CHRB is allowing Santa Anita to put dirt back and unanimously approved this. See the CHRB Waives Synthetic Mandate article dated November 10, 2010. Now that dirt is coming back, the east coast horses have no excuses about running out here. If they still won't come out here, then their excuses are all a farce.
Bob46, they have the surface listed wrong on this site as D. Doesn't that stand for dirt, but you're right in looking at the video that race was on Turf. I could have sworn that British announcer said she had run on mutiple surfaces and if one is listed wrong are any others?
Got a kick out of your comment about Congress humphrey :) And what a character John Henry was. He won HOY without, sadly to say, ever running in any BC races that inaugural year due to injury but at least the industry had enough respect to honor him with the title. Did you ever see him? He was really something else let me tell you.
Well I was working off of memory and the British announcers comments regarding her racing. She did, however, run on the the dirt in the 2010 BC Mile, oh and by the way she won that race. If east shouldn't have to ship west then, again, why is it expected that those in the west must ship east to prove themselves. Your argument simply doesn't stand up bob46.
Yes, I've read your threads icyhotboo and know you are a fan of Zenyatta, I apologize if it sounded otherwise in mine. Thank you. There was a recent article about the troubles of the horse racing and breeding industry that was quite interesting. We'll have to see what happens.
What about Pleasantly Perfect with Affirmed in the bloodline and he's already at Lane's End!
Sorry, icyhotboo, didn't complete my thought. My point about Goldikova is that horses can and are capable of running on multiple surfaces and being just as successful. Whether it's the owner or trainer deciding on what surface they run. I just think it would be beneficial to the sport to see east coast horses compete out here just as west coast horses are expected to compete in the east. This would definitely make it more competitive on both coasts.