Rightful coronation? Ok so what if Ginger Punch wins the race? If Ginger Punch wins, she's the champion. Even though they would be tied and Zenyatta kicked her ass on dirt. So in order for Zenyatta to win the title, she's got to beat her twice but for GP to win it, she's only got to win once. Yeah, that's fair.
So...if Summer Colony didn't bother running in the 2002 BC Distaff, she could have won the Eclipse, since she beat Azeri in their only meeting at Santa Anita? Good thinking.
I think that making the point that she's only run seven times so far is not looking at the state of today's game. If this were the 80's or early 90's, that would be different. But in today's game, seven races is a lot. Consider how many Ghostzapper had. Smarty Jones. Bernardini and Invasor. Candy Ride. Afleet Alex. Barbaro. Curlin. Big Brown. You can't compare today's standards to those of the past.
That wasn't my point. All those horses you mentioned (two or three of which broke down) were males that weren't asked to run outside their division (aside from Curlin--maybe Candy Ride if you want to get picky). Zenyatta having to face males after just a handful of starts during her first full season of racing is brazen at best, reckless at worst.
Also, what's so wrong with running outside of your division before you've won a championship? Many great fillies have done that.
Name one that wasn't trained by D. Wayne Lukas.
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