Zenyatta Has Earned Horse of the Year

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

I think it's great to assume that Zenyatta's brought people to the sport and all, but really, did she attract any more attention than, say, Big Brown did in 2008? I'd suggest not.

I would agree and can think of others such as Funny Cide and Smarty Jones recently. I look at it this way and of course it's not the most scientific method. I know a certain horse has hit mainstream when my non racing fan friends ask me about the horse.

They wanted to know about Funny Cide before the Belmont. Same thing for Smarty Jones and were adament about going to the Belmont to see him run. Same thing for Big Brown before the Belmont. Last year they wanted to know about Rachel Alexandra. This year before the Classic I got a handful of texts wanting to know about Zenyatta and why they should know about her.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

I would agree and can think of others such as Funny Cide and Smarty Jones recently. I look at it this way and of course it's not the most scientific method. I know a certain horse has hit mainstream when my non racing fan friends ask me about the horse.

They wanted to know about Funny Cide before the Belmont. Same thing for Smarty Jones and were adament about going to the Belmont to see him run. Same thing for Big Brown before the Belmont. Last year they wanted to know about Rachel Alexandra. This year before the Classic I got a handful of texts wanting to know about Zenyatta and why they should know about her.

Zenyatta is the west coasts Smarty Jones... the hype was unreal on the East when Smarty was going through the triple crown. Zenyatta never matched that on the east coast, though I'm sure she did in California.

[slotdirt]

Did 120k people show up to watch Zenyatta lose her last race? Because that's how Smarty rolled.

[Antitrust32]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Did 120k people show up to watch Zenyatta lose her last race? Because that's how Smarty rolled.

if my foggy memory is correct, Smarty's Belmont day was an absolute gorgeous day and you could still BYOB... They would have got 75k with no triple crown bid that day.

Zenyatta brought out a good # of people on the West Coast also.