BEYER: Defining Zenyatta's historical role

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Port Conway Lane

Big Brown was a huge flop in the Belmont so I suppose no one wanted to embrace a loser.

As far as the "feel good" story I'm not so sure that captured the imagination of fans as much as SJs' courageous effort in defeat.

One thing Big Brown had over Smarty Jones PR wise was UPS.

What were the tv viewership and attendance for their respective Triple Crown races?

[blackthroatedwind]

I am not a big Smarty Jones fan, and never was, but to deny that he was a fan/media phenomenon makes no sense. He definitely caught peoples' attention.....though this obviously dissipated quickly after the Belmont ( especially given his subsequent retirement ).

He would have drowned Zenyatta by the way.

[Port Conway Lane]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

What were the tv viewership and attendance for their respective Triple Crown races?

Someone answered that after your post, not surprisingly it is SJ.

This thread has been diverted from Beyer to a post on a facebook wall of a quote from a woman who I've never heard of.

I contributed to this as much as anyone so I will take back any comparison I made of BB to Smarty Jones and simply say if I polled 1,000 people at my local shopping mall to name a horse who has run a race in the last 10 years the top 3 would be
Seabiscut
Secretariat
Peppers Pride (I live in NM)

This says more about racing and the media than it says about the popularity of any horses named in this thread.

[tiggerv]

Why publish a generic "Zenyatta is overrated" article the day after Rachel retires? How about writing about the historical place of the retired horse instead of the horse with 2 races left? I know that Beyer is in LA and Z runs this weekend, but save the Zenyatta historical role article until after she finishes racing.

[parsixfarms]

Originally Posted by tiggerv

Why publish a generic "Zenyatta is overrated" article the day after Rachel retires? How about writing about the historical place of the retired horse instead of the horse with 2 races left? I know that Beyer is in LA and Z runs this weekend, but save the Zenyatta historical role article until after she finishes racing.

I tend to agree.

Also, in calling her the "poster girl" for synthetic surfaces, the piece reads as if Beyer is projecting his disdain for synthetic surfaces onto Zenyatta.

[Patrick333]

Originally Posted by tiggerv

Why publish a generic "Zenyatta is overrated" article the day after Rachel retires? How about writing about the historical place of the retired horse instead of the horse with 2 races left? I know that Beyer is in LA and Z runs this weekend, but save the Zenyatta historical role article until after she finishes racing.

Great point...

[johnny pinwheel]

Originally Posted by tiggerv

Why publish a generic "Zenyatta is overrated" article the day after Rachel retires? How about writing about the historical place of the retired horse instead of the horse with 2 races left? I know that Beyer is in LA and Z runs this weekend, but save the Zenyatta historical role article until after she finishes racing.

amen. no, hes not biased either after his numbers said zenyatta was slow last year....oh wait a minute, then she won the BC classic. must be the surface...oh, the horse won two graded stakes on the dirt too.....that doesn't count. it almost makes me want her to win at churchill. just to read what kind of garbage makes her not "historical" after that....what a joke of an article....did it even have a point? i noticed the trend that these articles usually come up after his numbers get tanked or he has to justify them. if she was not one of the best horses of the last decade.....who is andy? i thought you followed this game...lol....lol,

[Indian Charlie]

Expecting rational discourse from Zenyattards is much like expecting an intelligent, non emotional conversation between a rational human being and a religious zealot who reacts to every undeniable fact with great outbursts of illogic and defensiveness.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by johnny pinwheel

amen. no, hes not biased either after his numbers said zenyatta was slow last year....oh wait a minute, then she won the BC classic. must be the surface...oh, the horse won two graded stakes on the dirt too.....that doesn't count. it almost makes me want her to win at churchill. just to read what kind of garbage makes her not "historical" after that....what a joke of an article....did it even have a point? i noticed the trend that these articles usually come up after his numbers get tanked or he has to justify them. if she was not one of the best horses of the last decade.....who is andy? i thought you followed this game...lol....lol,

Do you ever have a point with your drivel?

[goingtothewhip]

Probably she isn't;dirt and synthetics are so different that few horses are top-class on both. (The 0-for-43 record of horses making the transition from dirt to synthetics in the Santa Anita Breeders Cups laid to rest the cliché that "a good horse can run on anything."

Just off the top of my head: Looking at Lucky, I Want Revenge, Colonel John?
A few "slow" synthetic based horses that seemed to do alright making the transition to dirt.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by goingtothewhip

Just off the top of my head: Looking at Lucky, I Want Revenge, Colonel John?
A few "slow" synthetic based horses that seemed to do alright making the transition to dirt.

What does your response have to do with the passage you quoted?

[Pedigree Ann]

I have not taken Andy Beyer's judgment about relative merits of horses seriously since 1989, when he declared on national TV that there was no way in Hades that Bayakoa could run on a pressured lead and hold off quality horses like Gorgeous in the BC Distaff. So I consider the source of this article and dismiss it as irrelevant. No skin off of my nose, nor Zenyatta's.

[miraja2]

Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann

I have not taken Andy Beyer's judgment about relative merits of horses seriously since 1989, when he declared on national TV that there was no way in Hades that Bayakoa could run on a pressured lead and hold off quality horses like Gorgeous in the BC Distaff. So I consider the source of this article and dismiss it as irrelevant. No skin off of my nose, nor Zenyatta's.

Oh no! I've been respecting this guy's opinion for a long time.....but I never knew about this disaster! He got a race wrong twenty years ago!?!?! What a clown!
I certainly won't pay him any mind now that this has come to light because I only take seriously those people who are:
1) paid to give opinions about a lot of races
2) get every single race they've ever analyzed completely correct.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

It's the kind of stuff you can expect from people who don't understand handicapping and betting.

[randallscott35]

Originally Posted by miraja2

Oh no! I've been respecting this guy's opinion for a long time.....but I never knew about this disaster! He got a race wrong twenty years ago!?!?! What a clown!
I certainly won't pay him any mind now that this has come to light because I only take seriously those people who are:
1) paid to give opinions about a lot of races
2) get every single race they've ever analyzed completely correct.

Still wondering how I picked Super Saver to win the Preakness. Yuck.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann

I have not taken Andy Beyer's judgment about relative merits of horses seriously since 1989, when he declared on national TV that there was no way in Hades that Bayakoa could run on a pressured lead and hold off quality horses like Gorgeous in the BC Distaff. So I consider the source of this article and dismiss it as irrelevant. No skin off of my nose, nor Zenyatta's.

I will keep this from Beyer lest he be crushed.

The funny thing is that the following year Gorgeous demonstrated who actually was the better horse between the two before she got hurt.

[knickslions2]

Originally Posted by Pedigree Ann

I have not taken Andy Beyer's judgment about relative merits of horses seriously since 1989, when he declared on national TV that there was no way in Hades that Bayakoa could run on a pressured lead and hold off quality horses like Gorgeous in the BC Distaff. So I consider the source of this article and dismiss it as irrelevant. No skin off of my nose, nor Zenyatta's.

Wow let me know the next race you handicap since you must have a perfect record to say this.

[GPK]

Originally Posted by knickslions2

Wow let me know the next race you handicap since you must have a perfect record to say this.

Don't hold your breath.

[slotdirt]

8,893,829 rupies that Pedigree Ann picked Empire Maker in 2003.

[blackthroatedwind]

Originally Posted by GPK

Don't hold your breath.

She's very good a day or two afterwards however.

Or a decade or two.