Girls beating the boys happens more on turf because it's tried about 10x more on turf here.

Total for the year 10

In the Santa Margarita- 3

Made For Magic wasn't a graded winner before she faced Zenyatta, but has since won the grade 2 Milady at Hollywood
Pretty Unusual won the grade 2 El Encino in Jan '10
Striking Dancer won the grade 2 La Canada in Feb '10

In the Apple Blossom- 3

War Echo won the grade 3 Silverbulletday in Feb '09
Just Jenda was a multiple graded stake winner last year and this year
Be Fair won the off the turf grade 3 Lake George in Aug '09

In the Vanity- 2

Zardana won the grade 2 Bayakoa in Dec '09
St Trinians won grade 2 Santa Maria Feb '10

In the Clement Hirsch- 1 (sort of) Made For Magic was in the race

In the Zenyatta Stakes- 2

Switch won the grade 2 Hollywood Oaks June '10
Satans Quick Chick won grade 2 Raven Run October '09

It is true though. Those are G1's out there for real $. No?

my point exactly. I am knocking your beloved sport and you don't even realize it.

9 straight grade 1 races and never faced a good horse....how does that happen?

Should be 11, where was everyones super horse at Oaklawn?

How many times does someone have to explain it before it sinks in?

There is nothing at all to explain, NOTHING. They set this big race up. They both had soft soft preps, they were both odds on. Z ROLLS, AND SHOWS UP. Rachel gets beat, and backs out. Thats not Z or the connections fault. Even a Z hater should admit this as factual.

If only it were this simple.

It is, I can admit Z campaign sucks. Yea she should have shipped this year and last. But the specific Oaklawn issue is plain and simple.

No it's not. They felt as though she wasn't where she needed to be to make the race. In hindsight, they were right.

IC

Zenyatta has added about a million to her earnings thus far this year.

If the opportunity is there to pick up "an easy" million, and still be prepping for The Classic, I'd offer the connections might be wise.

her owners have 100's of millions which blows that usually sound theory.

...or the organization of the sport is a complete fucl<ing disaster as someone else already suggested on this page.

True enough, but racing history clocks comparison earnings like baseball fans track lifetime stats.


I think 20-0 and retiring as a 6 year old mare beating the best young boys in The Classic has been the goal for all of 2010.

Not necessarily. See Symboli Rudolf.

Just out of curiosity who are the grade 1 winners that raced this year other than Zenyatta in socal? Where are these grade 1 winners going to come from to populate the races?

The answer to your first question has been discussed already. None in socal. For all of the talk about how great it was she shipped to Oaklawn, when you look at the field, not so much.

Where are they going to come from? They aren't going to run in California. But they were at Churchill, Keeneland, Belmont and Saratoga. The best don't wait for others to come to them...they seek out the best.

you got the wrong sport for that

The connections of Goldikova, Gio Ponti and Blind Luck disagree.