Although this thread is unfortunately becoming yet another RA-Zenyatta thread, I think the original poster raised an interesting point.
Personally I can't really blame the connections of Zenyatta if they decide they don't want to follow Quality Road and Rachel (and whomever else might emerge this year as a decent runner) all around the country the entire year. Perhaps they figure they have the best horse and so it isn't their job to make a big race happen, particularly after they did their part at Oaklawn earlier in the year.
That's all fine. But when there is a big (and historically significant) race IN SoCal, with a pretty darn good horse running in it, it strikes me as a different matter. They already know there isn't going to be any competition for her from fillies or mares on the synthetic. Everyone knows that. So why not run in the bigger race against the better competition? If they truly want her to be considered an all-time great, running in races like the HGC against a real horse sure seems like a better way to get that done than beating up on a couple of hopelessly overmatched allowance-types.
Not wanting to ship all over the place chasing the top horses in the entire country is one thing. Deciding not to seek out a race against a good horse on your own track is something different.
|