Shirreffs' latest gem

[RolloTomasi]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

You say, "The owners of the best horses always looked for the best races to show their stuff in, but these guys are different."

That is untrue. Most of the great mares usually run against mares. Some of them run against the boys sometimes, but that's not really expected and that's not really the norm. If you look at the records of most great mares, the majority of them usually ran against mares. It may be a little different in Europe, but not over here.

Doesn't Zenyatta's reputation transcend her gender?

There was a big blow up when she was compared to Lava Man a few months ago.

Doesn't the vast majority here think she is more than capable of shouldering the principle components of his '96-'98 campaigns (ie Big Cap, Hollywood Gold Cup, Pacific Classic) and come out the other end at least as successful as he was?

If you still want to play the gender card, didn't most of the top mare's of the modern era travel to a much greater extent than Zenyatta? Let's ignore Personal Ensign, who's "light" campaigning (in fact she was raced in intense fashion playing "catch up" as a 3yo) was the result of a major injury as opposed to a conscientious trainer.