9/27 (OSA): Goodwood Day (6 Gr. I stakes)

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by RolloTomasi

Rightful coronation? Ok so what if Ginger Punch wins the race? If Ginger Punch wins, she's the champion. Even though they would be tied and Zenyatta kicked her ass on dirt. So in order for Zenyatta to win the title, she's got to beat her twice but for GP to win it, she's only got to win once. Yeah, that's fair.

So...if Summer Colony didn't bother running in the 2002 BC Distaff, she could have won the Eclipse, since she beat Azeri in their only meeting at Santa Anita? Good thinking.

I think that making the point that she's only run seven times so far is not looking at the state of today's game. If this were the 80's or early 90's, that would be different. But in today's game, seven races is a lot. Consider how many Ghostzapper had. Smarty Jones. Bernardini and Invasor. Candy Ride. Afleet Alex. Barbaro. Curlin. Big Brown. You can't compare today's standards to those of the past.

That wasn't my point. All those horses you mentioned (two or three of which broke down) were males that weren't asked to run outside their division (aside from Curlin--maybe Candy Ride if you want to get picky). Zenyatta having to face males after just a handful of starts during her first full season of racing is brazen at best, reckless at worst.

Also, what's so wrong with running outside of your division before you've won a championship? Many great fillies have done that.

Name one that wasn't trained by D. Wayne Lukas.

Personal Ensign is one. Excellent Meeting. Royal Heroine. A lot of Europeans. Safely Kept. Very Subtle. Xtra Heat. Honest Lady. Eight Belles.

The Summer Colony argument is not even close to the same thing. You might as well have said Lorenzoni should have gotten it over Easy Goer since he beat him. That's not what I'm saying at all. We are talking about comparable records in top class races between two talented mares. I'm not saying that Zenyatta's one win should give her the automatic advantage. It could have been an off day for Ginger Punch. But why should GP beating her to even the score, on a synthetic track at that, mean that she's the champion? It's sort of like when Ohio St and Michigan were both at the top of the polls in football. Ohio St. had played and beaten Michigan yet people were saying that Michigan deserved a spot in the title game to play them again. If that would have happened and Michigan had won, they'd be the champs even though the score was 1-1. Ohio St would have had to beat Michigan twice to be the champion. Same here. Zenyatta shouldn't have to beat GP twice to win a title when it would only take one win for GP to be the champ.

My point about the number of starts thing is that in years past, even those males wouldn't have been asked to do as much as they did so soon in their careers. But it's a different game now. The same things that horses used to be asked to do 8-10 races into a career, they are now being asked to do 3-5 in. In years past, horses raced 30+ times over multiple seasons so there was no rush to do things. Now, when you're looking at a 10-15 race career max, the timetables are pushed way up.