Zenyatta

[Travis Stone]

The bottom line from this weekend...

Zenyatta silenced her critics. She's legit. She ran huge. She will always be a victim of her style, but that's how it goes. Teams live by their offense, or die by their defense... visa-versa. The good ones overcome, which she did all 20 times. Unfortunately for her, Blame fired huge. He heard her coming too, dug-in, held his lead before, on and after the wire. Losing by a nose to him in today's racing game is no slouch.

As for the Horse of the Year, anyone but Blame receiving the honor would be a tragedy. Horse of the Year rewards accomplishments, which in this game, is about winning. And when winning counted most, it was Blame.

It scares me that this might even be a close vote.