If Zenyatta wins the Classic

[King Glorious]

Originally Posted by CSC

What effect if any will Rachel's early exit in mid-late summer have on the voting for HOY? I know many will say none, but we don't know that for sure...there are bound to be some terrific performances that will no doubt leave an ideliable mark on horseracing fans in the BC, BC preview/preps and beyond.

How many times has it happened where a clear a seemingly runaway leader has stopped racing before year's end and had another horse come in and take it away from them? Off the top of my head, I can only think of Smarty Jones in 2004 losing out to Ghostzapper and in that case, Smarty ended in June. Rachel raced into September. Other than that, I can think of a few horses that ended their season early and still won the title. I don't go back as far as others but I know that it didn't hurt:

Spend a Buck
Criminal Type
Holy Bull
Charismatic
Point Given