Roger Stein on Beyer on Zenyatta

[Indian Charlie]

Originally Posted by Rupert Pupkin

I agree with you 100% about Mike Smith. He didn't "wait too long". He didn't want to be that far back. She didn't want to run in the early going. It wasn't his fault. She looked to me like she didn't like getting hit with the dirt. The thing that people are forgetting is that her two races at Oaklawn were in a 5 horse field and a 6 horse field. In the 6 horse field, she had post 6. She took very little dirt in those races.

It is true that Zenyatta never got passed Blame on the gallop-out but I think there are good explanations as to why. Blame was much fitter than Zenyatta. Blame has been running 1 1/8 mile races and 1 ¼ mile races. Not only had Zenyatta not run 1 ¼ miles in a year, she hadn’t even run 1 1/8 miles for 5 months. Her last two races were both 1 1/16 miles. As good of a trainer as John Shireffs is (even if he’s the best trainer in the world at getting a horse ready for a big race), I still think that Zenyatta was at a disadvantage coming into a 1 ¼ mile race against the best horses in the world, coming out of 1 1/16 mile races. Don’t get me wrong, 1 ¼ miles is definitely her best distance but it’s hard to be 100% fit to run 1 ¼ miles when you haven’t even run 1 1/8 miles for 5 months.

In a normal race, all Zenyatta needs to do is run a strong final 3 furlongs. In this race, she was a good 20 lengths back (between calls) going into the clubhouse turn. This forced her to have to make a prolonged run for the final 7 furlongs rather than just the final 3 furlongs. I’ll bet you she ran her final 7 furlongs in 1:22 and change, which is unheard of. So she’s coming out of 1 1/16 mile races and she is forced to sprint her final 7 furlongs in a 1 ¼ mile race. It’s not surprising that she didn’t gallop out as strong as Blame.

Yeah. I've been screaming it for about a year and a half. Her handlers have been freakin retards.