[jaripeo]

What Greatness Looks Like

Posted by Superfecta at 3:22 PM

Unless something spectacular beyond belief happens at this year's Breeders' Cup, we've already seen the last of the best horse of the year - possibly the best horse for generations - for this season. Zarkava's brilliance seems to know no bounds; she took on the world's best and waltzed past them as if it were easier than breathing for her. Most of the sixteen other horses she beat were formidable foes - at least to your 'average' Group 1 winner:

This Arc field contained six individual Derby winners from Europe and the Far East, and featured a fabulous collection of top class racehorses. It is a mark of Zarkava's great class that she made most of them look like second-raters. Now, her name can rightly be mentioned alongside that of Allez France. She is a great, who can be hailed as such.

Facing colts and older horses for the first time and having drawn the supposedly bad-luck-ridden #1 hole seemingly had no impact on the 3-year-old filly; she is the first horse in 44 years to win from stall one. We have nothing like her equal in North America at present.

She was helped in no small part by a perfect ride by Christophe Soumillon; the Belgian jockey was a model of patience and confidence, waiting for his moment and barely even needing to tell Zarkava 'go' when it was time to do so.

While no one doubts that her performance places her among the greats, exactly how to quantify it is a matter of some discussion. Timeform assigned her a 133, while the British Horseracing Authority only awarded her a 127. The next set of world rankings comes out tomorrow (and Timeform's own on Wednesday); Zarkava had been tied for 8th overall with Youmzain (who, like last year, finished second -- albeit a much more well-beaten second this time around) in the IFHA rankings and it is difficult to imagine anyone ranking ahead of her now.

One hopes that she will be allowed to continue racing next year; if she's this great at 3, she could be monstrous at 4 (or even 5). While many are suggesting that she will be immediately retired, the only decision made so far is that she will not contest the Breeders' Cup. The Aga Khan summed up what Zarkava means to his operation thusly:

"My family has been breeding racehorses for five generations," the Aga said. "Two generations in India and three in Europe, and I believe this moment is the apogee of that effort.

He's not wrong. Before I sign off, I recommend you check out these Flickrphotostreams featuring Zarkava from Longchamp; she's a beautiful sight.

I will leave you to ponder this, dear reader: why do the French pronounce her name ZARK'a-va, while many Anglo-Americans prefer Zar-KA'va?