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Originally Posted by brianwspencer
I like Zenyatta, but it's important to put this in perspective too. Nobody is saying that Rachel is beating up on any soon-to-be legendary superstars by any stretch, but Zenyatta's "peers" this year are for the most part, not even close to Grade I quality in any way ....here's what I said elsewhere as far as facing quality competition.
Of the three runners-up in Zenyatta's 2009 races, Life Is Sweet is the only one who even belongs in the conversation.
Let's not get carried away by her gutsy Clement Hirsch win over the barely Grade III-quality (at best...I'm being generous here) Anabaa's Creation who was sent postward in that spot at 22-1 off a scintillating no-excuses 5th-place finish against 3rd-level allowance company in her prior start, and who hasn't proven herself to be of any significant class (at least of the kind we'd be talking about when discussing the "real race horses" our leading HOY contender had beaten!) since 2007.
Or perhaps we're talking about Briecat, whose career highlight came in winning the Grade II Bayakoa against six other foes, but whose 2009 record is marginal at best, considering that she has been soundly, borderline embarrassingly-beaten in all of her 2009 starts except for...wait for it...the time she ran within two and a half lengths of Zenyatta. Her other four starts of the year have led to drubbings of a combined 39 lengths against inferior competition.
Of course you can pick at Rachel's opponents too, but let's be intellectually honest here and cut the pretending that there is some great talent disparity between who they are beating. And something tells me that Rachel wouldn't be life and death to beat Anabaa's Creation either, but that's pure conjecture on my part.
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when i say 'peers' it has more to do with her facing off vs fellow distaffers-not making any statements about their ability to be competitive-or not. just like when i say that rachel has run vs her peers-they're all the same age. other than that, certainly far from equal!
i enjoy both horses, and have loved seeing their races. but i think only one of the two will still be mentioned and have horses compared to her years from now-and it's not the one based out west that i'm talking about.