A Grade 1 is a Grade 1, and synthetics are part of the game now, as much as we hate it, thats how it is.

It's not a handicap race and it is an ungraded stakes race run right around the exact same time as the freaking 750K Grade 2 Delaware Handicap and the Grade 1 Ruffian.

Who exactly were some of you people expecting to show up? Sharp Cat and Bayakoa?

Of course the race is a joke .. but that was obviously always going to be the result well in advance of the draw.

Hard to argue with such a convincing statement.

Its true though, I hate synthetics but its part of the game we love and bet on.

Yeah, but zenyatta still has to contend with the Rockies.

But it has nothing to do with them ducking.

The point is they are not, they are staying home running in G 1's. Rachel is running in listed races getting beat in G 2, 3's.

Avoid people offering to sell you magic beans.

American horse racing has always been about dirt racing. Our dirt racing has always been light years better than any place on earth ... and a lot of true foreign superstars have been smoked when they've stepped to our good dirt horses. Look at our record when our horses ship halfway around the world for the dirt races on the Dubai World Cup card.

We've absolutely owned races like the Dubai World Cup on dirt and the Golden Shaheen on dirt .. yet everytime one of our top turf horses go to Dubai they almost always get totally embarrassed and wildly outclassed. Hell, our turf horses get their ass kicked on a consistant basis in the turf races on the Breeders Cup card .. and we have advantages in numbers and course familiarity going into those races.

Turf racing is a lot like soccer. The turf horses in Japan are certainly better than they are here. The turf horses in Europe are so much better than the turf horses here that it's a complete joke. Because synthetic plays so much like turf racing ... it stands to reason that the good foreign horses should eat our good horses lunch over the crap. They sent only 3 horses for the first BC Classic on rubber .. and ran 1st and 2nd. Curlin couldn't beat Shirreffs Tiago on it. They sent over just 2 for last years Classic and one of them was dealing with real soundness issues. The only sound one in the race finished 3rd despite running a very akward and erratic race and getting the best number on both Ragozin and Thoro-Graph in defeat. No show Sea The Stars was considered wildly superior to Twice Over.

If we cared about soccer - and all of our best athletes pointed to careers in soccer instead of the NFL, NBA, or MLB .. of course we'd dominate the world in that pathetically simplistic stupid joke of a sport.

You have generations of selective breeding in horse racing - and the emphasis has been on speed suited for dirt racing for long enough that it's not as simple as assuming that we can dominate the world at their own brand of game just by merely pointing our good horses to it and just trying it instead of ignoring it with our best.

Zenyatta has a whole lot more to prove as a dirt horse. Her two wins - both in the Apple Blossom came with slow figures against very mediocre competition. You can spin all you want and say Ginger Punch was in one of those fields .. but she was coming in off of a layoff, had missed time training and was rumored to not be doing well in Feb, and she was put away by the hapless Brownie Points before Zenyatta even got going with her big late move.

You can sit there with a straight face and say Zenyatta isn't avoiding anything by staying in California? I don't even know why I waste my time sometimes.

What did we just agree on? You're a masochist.

SHe is, for sure... Look in the other thread I called both connections pitiful. I just think at this point, if Z runs in the Classic like they say they will, nothing else really matters.

Looks like Rachel is trying on the fields Z has run against most of her career. Can not blame the connections one bit as the ultimate goal is the 1st Friday in November. Now hopefully Z shows up.


Scat OUT

Why would Z ever show up Friday? She needs to be defending her title on Saturday.
Please stop saying Scat Outm PLEASE.

hope you don't mind company. this race is a joke. their campaigns this year are jokes.

Zenyatta has never run against as lame a field as this, as a matter of fact the Rockies may just be faster than this field, this is a ridiculously pathetic field for Rachel to be racing, like the Lakers playing Arcadia High School. It's a compete joke and a waste of her talent, I could care less to even watch this race, it's that embarassing.

Then care less.

The Santa Margarita field was just as lame in my opinion, no matter if it had a G1 title

i disagree.

as for synthetics...i'm not so sure they will still be a part of the game in a few years. santa anita plans to change. del mar hasn't been happy with their track since installing it. hollywood looks destined for the proverbial wrecking ball any day now. i don't see any other tracks installing it either.

Clearly you missed my point--and a paper champion is an opinion.

None of Zenyatta's races have been tailored by her connections specifically, they have been filled by whatever horses would enter such races , knowing in advance when they are scheduled as well ...

I have no need to validate the horse I think is better by running down the other--et tu ???

Not .

I was not trumpeting--only stating ..

But by today's standards Z carried a little weight. I do not recall anyone carrying more however, male or female recently...

Essentially agree with the rest ...

What about the Apple Blossom field this year?

The horse who finished 2nd was beaten in a small overnight stakes race at Delaware Park next out. The horse who finished 3rd was beaten about 25 lengths in a Grade 2 at Churchill next out.

Sometimes ????

Once again, I didn't bring Zenyatta up in this thread. It is always a Zenyattard who brings up the other horse.

And whether or not they're tailored to her specifically, the fields are still a joke and beneath her. Arguing who's had the "more" pathetic campaign is beyond lame. They're both being babied despite being "superstars".

Settling for less is what present day America is all about.

True but when you win a handicap then go on afterwards to win the biggest Older horse race in the country over males and then carry the same exact weight the next year in that same race...that is really not a truly weighted race.

Of course virtually no handicap in this country is truly weighted anymore

Last line says it all ..

Truthfully I did expect her to carry at least 130 ...

For a dirt race? The BC Classic has been the country's top DIRT race, and she beat a good, rock-solid field of mainly turf horses, synthetic horses, and dirt no-hopers (thanks to the synthetic surface) in the country's biggest DIRT race.

It's apples and oranges to try to compare the two.

Besides, Randall's quote was about Rachel's entire campaign. Cherry-picking just the Woodward and comparing it on its own to the Classic is disingenuous.

FYI--the Woodward and the Classic were the only unrestricted races both girls ran in--nothing disigenous there . Of course there was a surface variable, but the former still applies--one unrestricted race each ...

Every other race each ran in was age or sex restricted ..

So now big Z travels and its still her fault no one showed? THIS IS PATHETIC.

I thought Just Jenda was okay at the time since she had a couple of G3s, although admittedly she got beaten in an ungraded stake at Monmouth in her last start. I agree the other 3 fillies were lousy.

They were lousy, so why was Rachel not there?

I think JJ couldn't take the criticism of losing that first race and let the media play into his head that Rachel wasn't the same.

I agree that she should have been there though and his hurt ego should be no excuse.

FYI: Your pomposity and obsessive use of ellipses doesn't substitute for a meaningful point.

Right, a mare winning races like the Milady, Vanity, Clement Hirsch and Lady's Secret is as significant as a filly winning the Preakness and the Haskell.

Mirror mirror on the wall ...

Serling beat you to it--I am easily the most pretentious poster he said, and don't you forget it, stupid ...

The post had plenty of meaning--you just chose to be a he- beeyotch about it ..

Off topic ..

We were not talking comparing races other than the only two UNRESTRICTED RACES both ran in --that was the topic .

And another FYI--it is 2010--let me know how that works for your bias at the year's end ..

No, it didn't. You rambled about age and sex restrictions in an attempt to isolate the Woodward and Classic and ignore the rest of Rachel's indisputably superior campaign. Not going to cut it ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ...

Super Fly, 10f on dirt, the 2 of them in there vs a few other plugs, maybe Life at Ten is in there. Who wins? I think Z wins for fun.