I'm sure it will balance out the amount of people who voted against Rachel because of her connections.

So you are saying that the horses she faced in the Woodward were better than the Travers?

Jerry Bailey sometimes needs to put a foot in his mouth. I mean.. everyone who follows racing knows that pinheads are, well, pinheads. This guy happened to be great at being a pinhead, though a pompous ******* pinhead (from most accounts).. and now that he's a retired pinhead suddenly he knows all?

He belongs on TVG. Though I have always been a Bailey hater.. well at least since Smarty's Belmont.

she already trounced the Travers horses (minus a QR of course)

Yes I am saying a 3yo filly taking on open company is the tougher choice.. I said that back in September also.

I still dont get the whole "travers was so much better than the woodward". The unknown factor of quality road was the only reason that could possibly be said. I mean, look who won the Travers and look what Rachel had done to that winner only weeks prior?

They are not as tough as Lethal Heat and Aanaba's Creation!

If this poll is indicative of the actual Eclipse awards voting, it would be embarassing. If Jess Jackson is considering bringing back Rachel Alexandra for next year, why bother? You dance every dance, beat all challengers in an historic season for a 3YO filly, and it's not worth the horse of the year award? I'd stick her in the barn and send her to Curlin in six months.

Oh no Dell not you too....People who were there had a Jesus moment, I get it....Polytrack into wine.

Basically you would take your bat and go home. Isn't that a tad bit juvenile?

Well, it's not like he's definitely bringing her back anyway. If he's leaning one way or the other, getting jobbed in the awards process would definitely be a deterrent to returning her to training. This is Jess Jackson, Mr. Anti-Establishment in horse racing, after all.

Smarty Jones

Kentucky, California, New York, Chicago, Miami, Ireland, and London.

Weren't you paying attention?

It would be interesting to get Phils, or Scotts opinion on this since he saw Rachel live in the Preakness and Zenyatta in the BC.. Scott was there for woodward, and BC..

What do you two think?

i think she and others (like me) are saying she'd already beaten the cream of the three year old crop twice, so they chose to cover new ground. zenyatta may be the first distaffer to win the classic.. but don't forget that rachel is the first ever to win the woodward. she's also the first 3 yo filly to win a two turn gr 1 over older males.

Don't forget that the Woodward reads like a who's who in horse racing over the last 50 years when one considers that horses like Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, Forego, Kelso, Damascus, Arts and Letters, Seattle Slew and more recently Saint Liam, Ghostzapper, and Skip Away have all won the race. Advantage Rachel Alexandra in terms of historical significance.

Canada,United kingdom,France United Arab Emirats,Irerland,United States and I believe Italy

I love this fillie and give her all the credit due but the fact remains she did not face a field 1/2 as accomplished as Zennadda

i would disagree. only zenyattas last race included horses that were worth much, and many of them had already faced and been beaten by rachel. the rest were on par with what ran in the woodward.

would you be upset about co-HOY of the year? By the way that was some great steak we had!!!! and Scott seemed OK w/HOY. You guys are great and this was the year of the females no doubt about it. Give them both HOY and make everyone happy!!

That's almost RIOT funny!!!

They don't like SoCal and/or Synthetic. Just vote, and forget this effort. One horse is drawing away (with gusto) in one of the 2 biggest purse races in the world. She showed up on the biggest stage, and romped. Simply fkn romped, and still what do you hear? "She didn't do enough." Neither did anything wrong, but R.A. didn't even run in the biggest race for 3 year olds this year( K Derby.) She's a 3 year old. If you want to match up with Zenyata, then you should at least have won the biggest race for a 3 year old, or won this race that Zenyata showed up for. Zenyata won the biggest race she could of been in this year. She's the only filly or mare to win this race. Hasn't ever been done (in the 25 year history.) Winning Colors won the Derby. R.A. didn't even run in it. She won a Triple Crown race. Then, she ducked both the Belmont and BC Classic. Hey, if you want to ignore the mare that accomplished the biggest feat (for her sex) in 25 years of horseracing, then you go right ahead. Surely, R.A. winning those other races was more important to ya. At some point, doing something your sex hasn't come close to doing in 25 years should get a little respect.

Zenyatta vote here, because I remember RA's defining race as the Breeders Cup Classic her owner hide from. No guts no glory.

:tro:

Where were you? You do live in LA?

You do realize that Gio Ponti really isn't Italian don't you?

Scuds= just another Cal bred who can't separate one race from a campaign.

Already had people chores that day. I don't find it attractive to pay money to get into to give up %. I only went a couple times this year. I said hi to Vic Stauffer. I told him his rider gave a great ride in the 1st race, and he said "thanks buddy." After the 1st week at Del Mar, I told him he n' Joel might need to share a V-8. I think I may have pointed out the lovely ground-losing ride on Maui Mark in the 5th race on 7-25. He had a distinctly negative response to that, and told me my messages were no longer welcome.

What campaign can match a filly or mare winning a 5 million dollar race in that fashion? She aced the final exam, slept with teacher, and mopped the floor.

:eek: :eek: :zz:

You and that Simon Trainer both do this. No information is transmitted. It's akin to "sticking one's tongue out."

Haha, rarely actually but when you say something silly there is not much to respond to. I guess you missed the Haskell.

Ten furlongs on conventional dirt. Icon Project vs Zenyatta. Who finishes in front?

I would also add this, they are great conspiracists, a very defensive bunch these RA fans are, try not to hurt their feelings too much Scuds, we know who delivered on the biggest day of racing.

3051 posts and this is it? I'm guilty...

Well, I think most of us are fans of both of these horses. They both had great years. Fact is one of them has earned more money in this country in 2009 than any other horse. Last week it was that she hadn't beaten anybody, or run fast enough. She put that to rest, and she's won more money. Last year, it was that she couldn't do it on dirt. She went to O.P., and put that to rest. To me, a mare winning more money in the U.S. than anyone, and winning the biggest race this country has, is better than a 3 year old filly beating older males. The connections of R.A. left the door open. Someone stepped up to the plate, n' took care of business(with ears pricked crossing the wire.)

Zenyata: $3,330,000
Rachel Alexandra $2,746,914
Gio Ponti $2,333,000
Summer Bird $2,323,040
Mine That Bird $1,892,200

What I said all along was unless someone stepped up at the BC, RA was the HOY. I think Steve summed it up perfectly on his show I am paraphrasing but we were so conditioned to believe that Zenyatta's 90's beyers were the correct measure of her that we fail to realize races are run on the track and not on paper, I was one of those that underestimated her that when she ran her race, it totally knocked me over when you saw what she did.

Of note Jon White had a great explanation of the process of choosing HOY, it really is an open ended process without any specific critaria where the voter has the freedom to choose whoever they deem as worthy, so if people want to choose RA, I can certainly see why and I wouldn't call someone crazy if they do, I don't agree with those who say it would be a travesty of Zenyatta would get the nod and in all seriousness I can respect what both horses have done to see it both ways. But to me the BC Classic was the 'game changer' that I don't think many saw coming and that was enough to make me change my mind on her.

gander is the voice of reason. who cares? its the opinion and vote of a bunch of people. they are not racing each other. both sides have made me laugh. the thread where rachel is better than ruffian is a hoot. considering ruffian broke more records than zenyatta and rachel combined. but anyway there are good reasons for both winning. that being said, i had to vote for rachel. i kind of see horse of the year as a fan thing so any horse that runs on different tracks at different states would get my vote. yes , her campaign was planned to win this by summers end, but she won them all. plus, both races have there weaknesses. the woodward was second rate horses and the breeders cup "classic" is called a "classic" on pro ride where the dirt horses don't seem to have a shot at all. bottom line rachel exposed herself to more fans, more races on different tracks and won them all. the lesson should be "take it on the road or stay home and shut up when you are passed over". both are great horses though.

This makes no sense. Let me try and figure this out.

Lets say school starts in Sept. you show up a couple times a week, you pick the test that you want to take, miss all the major tests during the school year and come June, final exam time you show up take the test ace it with and A. Does this annoint you an A for the entire school year?????? I didnt think so.
You can't coast all year and expect to show up at the end ace one test and expect eveything that happened all year will go away. Stupid analogy

History,,,,,,,,,,,,, just might remember the 2009 Breeders Cup Classic as the race RA skipped to avoid Zenyatta. Thats the story I will tell.:D

Ill tell the story of how Zenyatta ducked, bobbed, weaved and avoided all major races an entire lifetime then picked a spot to go against the boys, with home field advantage against a group of unproven horses on polycrap in which all of them were spinning their wheels at the top of the stretch.
Rachel did more in just two races this year than Zenyatta did in an entire lifetime.

I'm not sure who Zennadda is....

You mean the big filly who outfinished the horse Interpretation outfinished four weeks earlier?

Oh yea and this just proved that you have a racing iq of like zero. Ducked Zenyatta are you mentally retarded. The decision was made that Rachel would not race on polycrap before they even bought her. Zenyatta didnt even decide to race in the classic until a week before the race, well after Rachel was shut down for the year. You act like Zenyattas pus sy owners had her planned to go the classic all year long, they were shi*ting their pants making the decision to put her in there.

You my fine sir are what we call a complete idiot.