it was a good year. but only one can get the nod. i'm in the rachel camp on this one, since she put up performances like that one today all year. and yes, i know zenyatta ran up a win streak as well. but rachel did it more often, and at a hell of a lot more places. someone has to win it.
but if rachel should lose the vote to zenyatta, i could see reasons for that to happen, and wouldn't lose sleep over it.
not that i'm about to lose sleep over the debate that's about to rage for the next couple months.

Though it will be debated for countless threads, I believe Zenyatta just swayed enough voters that she is HOY and not Rachel Alexandra.

I said it a month ago, this is the risk you take that is no different in Football. When you sit on the lead, the prevent defence is usually the losing defence to use this analogy.

Oh an award!

Next thing you know there will be threads in eso with catfights over who should win best actress at the daytime emmys.

I'm stunned that there is no poll thread yet.

It's Horse of the Year, not Horse of the Race...

Rachel can win it next year. This year should go to Zenyatta. In the grand scheme HOY is nothing more than fuel for already high powered egos.

They are dominant on 2 different surfaces. It's a difficult comparison to make, and one that should have never happened if tracks stayed dirt based.

14-0 just like the miami dolphins, no comparison unless u r perfect. i do not understand how people trash Z's races. 5-6 horse fields, slow pace, blah, blah, blah. and yet hype MTB who is giacomo2009 revisited. i hope the connection of RA learn a bit of humility. same hold true for the Big Brown outfit. These people show no respect to their peers . HOPE BOTH OUTFITS NEVER WIN A G1 THE REST OF THEIR LIVES.

Bitter?

Far from it. Just want some one to show respect to the other camp even if you win hands down. that's all.

I too vote for bitter or bummed, you're one or the other

There is still that race at Fair Grounds.

If Zenyatta wins HOY im done with horse racing forever. One state, 4 walk over races that half were not impressive and a BCC without all the best horses in the country. RA 11 wins multiple states, multiple tracks, easily handled the females, easily handled 3yr old boys and beat the older boys. Not even close

you would really let an award that's voted on affect your life in any way? get a grip

phuck you

You may as well add it's not horse of 1/2 a yr either...

Did Rachel Alexander ever face and beat a field like that?????????? No knock on Rachel as she is every bit deserving of every ounce of praise she gets. But look at what Zenyatta just beat.

.....uhhh o.k

They are both great fillies, but Rachel did not even come close to doing what Zenyatta did today. Look at the common competition:

In the Preakness, Rachel beat Mine That Bird by a shrinking length....Zenyatta beat him by 10 lengths today according to the chart.

And in the Woodward, she beat, and barely beat, Macho Again, who although is a nice horse, is no where near the kind of colts that were in the field Zenyatta beat today. In the Travers, there was no Einstein, no Colonel, no Summer Bird, no Gio Ponti (a horse that had a stellar year), among others.

She has beat everyone that they brought to her, and beat one of the better Classic fields in years.

Although Rachel had an amazing year and can make a case for Horse of the Year, and may even win it, Zenyatta being the first female to win the Classic, in the dominant fashion she did, really was a performance for the ages and would get my vote.

Debates such as this are part of the fun and the intrigue of the sport. I just wish would could have seen them run against each other to settle it, but let's face it, this debate is the next best thing.

Before today I felt that even if Zenyatta was to win the Classic, HOY should still go to RA, but after that performance I saw today by Zenyatta, it would be an absolute crime if she didn't win. She showed up on the biggest day and ran huge. I wrote her off on the turn and she came up with a way to win. HOY.