Zenyatta: Slayer of Scoundrels
 

'Spartacus: Blood and Sand' is without a doubt the best thing going on tv that I've watched in a few years.

In last nights new episode ... Spartacus went into the arena and butchered up some scawny old man who was framed for a murder he didn't commit.

The peoples champion put on a show and sliced the old mans head clean off. The crowd went wild.

With his blade .. he picked up the old mans severed head and raised it for all to see. At least Spartacus wins in utterly devastating fashion.

Zenyatta always comes through for the people... If she didn't...

* Taptam would be BY FAR the worst Apple Blossom winner ever.

* Dance To My Tune BY FAR the worst Santa Margarita winner ever.

* Lethal Heat BY FAR the worst Lady's Secret winner ever.

* Anabaa's Creations BY FAR the worst Clement Hirsch winner ever.

* Briecat BY FAR the worst Vanity winner ever

* And Gio Ponti would be a figgen Breeders Cup Classic winner.


Here's a better look at who has finished 2nd to her in her last 6 races ...




That old wine dude Jess Jackson - or whatever his name is - he should have taken hold of his deflated grapesack - and not been so fearful of losing.

But hey .. why dare test the mighty slayer of Taptam for $5 million on dirt?

You can always just put your tail between your legs and possibly catch the speedy Careless Jewel and Zardana both on dirt for 300K... in a stakes race whos name has long been assosicated with attracting fillies who duck the Kentucky Oaks.

Hey she went there to see Racheal but she was scared

The horse wasn't scared of losing ... The old rich wine guy was.

Just pumping you up this fine morning. Wish they both were there yesterday

Good stuff as usual DrugS, but is it really fair to lump Gio Ponti in with those other slugs? He put together three first-rate performances in a row last summer and I thought he also ran a very strong race in the BCC.
While beating the others you mentioned may not show much, don't you think Gio Ponti was a pretty darn good horse last year? I think beating him is actually a feather in Zenyatta's cap.

From my perspective Taptam just slayed the apparent 2nd(Just Jenda) and 3rd(War Echo) best horses in the field, a pair of G.3 winners that finished last and 2nd to last in a field of 5. You can thank the higher power Moss doesn't have the same set of balls that Jess has. Otherwise Rachel would be the slayer of Taptam because of a pair of Gr.3 winners couldn't.

It seems so easy to handpick horses that have finished behind ANY great horse and then point out how the handpicked horse would be the "worst" winner of that given race.
Not to mention that "worst" is a matter of conjecture.

I think its easy to discredit the beaten ones, and the ones they have beaten. But it is even easier to analyze the ones that have beaten her, BECAUSE THERE ARE NONE.

Ah no - the last five females to run 2nd to her are disgraceful slugs.

Name me one Apple Blossom winner in the last 20 years who's no better than Taptam. You can't.

Name me one Santa Margarita winner in the last 20 years who's no better than Dance to my Tune. You can't.

Name me one Lady's Secret winner you've seen who's no better than Lethal Heat. You can't.

Name me one Clement Hirsch winner you've seen who's no better than Anabaa's Creation. You can't.

Name me one Vanity Handicap winner you've see who's no better than Briecat. You can't.

Even if you ignore all the elements of competent handicapping you still can't rationally argue that even the winners of the worst editions of those races aren't better.

I thought Rachael would have won if she was at her best but you can't blame Zenyatta for Rachael not making the race.

I doubt Zenyatta even broke a sweat yesterday. She didn't have to.
People bad mouthed the great Cigar becasue he didn't beat anyone. Who was better?

ok, so...


who is Zenyatta ducking?

This is the same kind of bullcrap that led to Favorite Trick winning the Horse of the Year title over Skip Away.

The 2yo's sucked beyond belief that year .. the older males were amazingly talented and spectacularly deep in numbers.

It's also the same kind of nonsense that led to Sports Illustrated ranking Pepper's Pride among the 20 best horses of last decade male or female.

I prefer to judge a horse by the quality of their performance and the quality of oppositon they beat.

It beats the logic for the naysayers to exclaim she is the all time luckiest horse in history. Every horse she has beaten has been a pure stroke of good fortune, a stroke of luck, the stars are aligned argument. That's all that is left in this argument, a grasping of the straws mentality. :zz:

Cigar faced and beat SEVERAL excellent horses.

SEVERAL of his performances were excellent.

She's not lucky.

She's just been very carefully managed and other than about three times in her career - she's faced pure crap.

Of course it is a feather in her cap. Spartacus also had to beat someone good somewhere along the way to become the peoples champion.

While good - Gio Ponti is certainly overrated and the thought of him as a Breeders Cup Classic winner sort of makes me laugh.

I also think Gio Ponti is a little better horse on turf than synthetic. He was 5th to Cowboy Cal in the Strub in his synth race prior to the BC Classic - and 4th to a trio of big longshots in his post BC Classic synth try.

And who exactly has Rachel ever beat that Zenyatta wouldn't have? Macho Again? Bullsbay? The fact of the matter is Zenyatta has beat every rival to line up against her, when the pace has been against her, in big fields and small and on dirt and 3 different synthetic surfaces, why STILL disparage her?

The facts are Zenyatta is every bit the champion Rachel is, and in my opinion, she's better.

Ok I'll give you that.
My point is that there are the Twice A Prince's finishing second behind many great horses. How would the horse that finished behind Ghostzapper in the Met Mile have rated among the last 20 winners? Or Macho Again last year behind Rachel? Maybe they weren't the worst, I'm not sure. Even if they were what does that say about Ghostzapper or Rachel ?
Seems like a backward way of rating the quality of the winning horse, especially when the other runners in the fields are ignored in the equation.

I disparaged only the horses who have been finishing 2nd to her.

However, one has every right to disparage several of her performances. Her win yesterday - which should generate no more than a 95 Beyer - was not impressive at all to me.

I was a lot more impressed with her previous victory over Brownie Points.

Say my little sister kicks your ass. Doubtful you then want to get a significantly more severe ass kicking from me. The old rich win guy understands this. BEYERITES don't.

When you're able to take my little sister, feel free to open your mouth. Until then, STFU.

that would be Silver Wagon. He was beaten 1.25 lengths and 2.25 lengths in Grade 1 stakes in his two starts after Ghostzapper crushed him. He also later won the Grade 1 Carter with a 110 Beyer and Grade 2 General Geroge with a 109 Beyer back-to-back. He was no bum. Saint Liam was a HOY. Roses in May and Pleasently Perfect were both stars. Ghostzapper beat real horses - but he's most loved for the way he won races more than anything else.

Summer Bird was a distant 2nd to RA in the Haskell.

Macho Again and Bullsbay and Mine That Bird and Musket Man aren't impressive at all relative to other 1-2 finishers of the Preakness and Woodward .. but keep in mind you're talking about a 3-year-old filly who beat them .. and in both cases beat setup closers who were aided by strong paces that should have hindered her.

Fixed that for you.

Hard to believe Doug feels that the same quality of horses would be entering most of these races had Zenyatta not been in the field, so as he declares the 2nd place horse the would have been "worst winner of the race ever" its deceiving at best, but Doug knows this.

Obviously the races would have been far more likely to attract respectable horses without Zenyatta running.

However ... the horses she has been beating have been mind bogglingly bad even with that considered.

OK fair enough,she was a 3yo filly beating the boys. To be fair (If you really believe that the horse who finishes 2nd to the winner rates the quality of that winner) how about the remaining 2nd place finishers in her other races ?

I know, it does not make for compelling racing...there are way to many races around the country but usually the Apple Blossom is kind of the king of the female spring races. Even when a horse like Azeri ran, and Azeri could give Zenyatta everything she would want, there were good horses that showed up. Yesterday...not so much.

Like a good little Gladiator out to give the blood lusting crowd in the arena what they came for ... she totally oblitered the 2nd place finishers in the Ky Oaks and Mother Goose.

Malibu Prayer - who was 2nd beaten 19+ lengths in the Mother Goose isn't a bad horse either - she's won a couple stakes since - including a victory in a Grade 2 stakes in her most recent start.

I think we can agree, the pure crap competition argument is one used to obfuscate the true quality of Zenyatta because what else is there to pick on? The beyers since she never lost? To use a quote from a beyer guy that at times you don't need to overanalyse every part of a horse's resume to know the horse deserves all of her accolades.
Steve Crist mentioned in his blog "Zenyatta, is a transcendently great horse who handles everything and is probably as good or better on dirt than on synthetics.

:wf I give.... there are no flaws in your reasoning. Zenyatta truly is an overrated horse.

So if the Washington Nationals go 162-0 on a tour of facing America's high school teams on their own diamonds, the "they beat pure crap" argument would just be a diversion from how truly great the Nationals were and those arguments would be nothing but ways to obfuscate the true quality of that baseball team?

:zz:

That's a horrible example, short of Zenyatta winning with one leg tied behind her back while conceding 30 lbs to the field because we know 16lbs is certainly not enough to impress, I don't ever think there is anything she can do to impress the naysayers.

She must run a beyer above 120, beat horses that have run beyers above 110 and not have the worst horse to have ever won the race she is in run 2nd.

To be truly consistent here, or beat Macho Uno & or Bullsbay carrying 117 while beyering 107 to be considered as great or as great as Princess "when do I find a race without Zenyatta in it" Rachel.

Blah,Blah, Blah, Zeyatta haters keep trying to find a horse to out run her closing run.

I would like to see her at Belmont with QR in a one turn mile and that long run to the wire.

Who would of thought that a pure closer would be undefeated. 16 for 16 no matter what the pace was and all the Zenyatta haters have to say is that she is a synthetic track over achiver and run against cheap horses. Go figure:zz::zz::zz:

Not so much. It's just something about those who are foaming at the mouth about her greatness when in a 16 race career, she's been great as far as consistency goes, but has not had to actually be "great" to win about 12-13 of those races, because the horses she had to beat were maybe (being generous) Grade III types.

I'm impressed by her. I respect the hell out of her. I had an opinion on some bull$hit awards last year, but don't think Zenyatta is a bad horse. She's a very good, very consistent horse who has been carefully managed and beaten up on horses who belonged in Grade III stakes on their best days.

The reality is that there is nothing short of calling her the greatest mare ever while completely ignoring any objective analysis her competition, and breathing heavily out of my mouth in a panicked way that will *ever* be taken as anything less than a grave insult to Zenyatta by you, CSC. It's not that nobody is impressed. It's that your myopic view on the subject has led you to the point where nobody can objectively say anything about her or the crap she's been beating without you taking it personally and trying to turn it into something personal, some grudge against the horse -- something that it's not.

"Transcendently great horse who handles everything" is kind of hard to stomach when it's coming from someone who rates Commentator the 2nd best horse of the last decade to not win a championship.

Commentator was 3-for-12 lifetime in Graded Stakes and not one for handling anything when he got a lot of pressure. He is a horse most likely to be appreciated by New Yorkers and the coldest of speed figure lovers.

Steve Crist is a great writer and obviously someone who knows horse racing extremely well.

He almost never is provocative though.

You know how some places have a thumbs-up and thumbs-down feature after you read a column. Crist's work always comes off as though he's shooting for all thumbs up from everyone.

I much prefer someone who is shooting for a thumbs down rating from every stupid person who disagrees with what they've just read...instead of someone who comes off like an impressive politican trying to pile up votes.

Sadly .. very few racing writers have that style .. and the ones who do often have brutally bad opinions or takes. Beyer is obviously the big exception.

On second thought, you're right -- this is a horrible example, because it involves them actually being on the road.

These threads turn into rabble rabble rabble. I like it.


Zenyatta Rabble Rabble Rabble.

Duhr RA Rabble Rabble Rabble.

F.uck both of them.

I hate you. I hate you. I hate you. I don't even know you, but I hate you. I hate your guts. I hope all the bad things in life happen to you and only to you.

Hey Coach, is that really you in that picture?

Signed,

Joseph S.

Odd timing, but note that Zenyatta has raced outside of Cali as often as Personal Ensign raced outside of New York. I'm not knocking PE, her competition or her accomplishments, but when you're the champ they have to come and get you.

This time Z came to the middle of the country to race on the dirt with fair notice to all. What's a gal gotta do?

Do you really think that z could beat Summer Bird at 9-12 furlongs on real dirt?