Roger Stein on Beyer on Zenyatta

[Rupert Pupkin]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

Therein lies the problem. She can make up that type of ground with those types of final furlongs on synthetics. She'd have no prayer of doing that on dirt.

The pace advantages that she spotted horses in the Clement Hirsch the last two years and the Lady's Secret in 2009 would be the end of her on dirt. It would be next to impossible to do that on dirt.

I totally disagree. Those fillies that she faced in those races would not be able to sprint home on the dirt. They could be going 1:15 and she could still spot those mediocre mares a 3-4 length lead at the quarter pole and run them down on the dirt. It would be much tougher to do that on a synthetic track.

Watch her 2008 race at Oaklawn. She made up over 10 lengths in the stretch (she was 6 lengths back at the quarter pole and ended up winning by 4 1/2 lengths). She could have never done that on a synthetic track.

As I've said in the past, I think they totally messed up her figure in that race because the clock malfunctioned in the Oaklawn Handicap (which was run an hour later) and the offocail time in the Oaklawn Handicap ended up being listed as 1:48 3/5. If you go to racereplays.com, they have the final time of the Oaklawn Handicap as 1:50.34. You can try clocking it yourself and that's what you will come up with. Zenyatta ran 1:42 3/5 an hour earlier. If you clock that race, you will see the time is correct. If Beyer knew that the actual time of the other race was 1:50.34, I wonder what number he gives to Zenyatta. I think it would have been more like a 112 or so.