Most Absurd Things Said by 'Respected' Journalists About Zenyatta

[hockey2315]

Jay Hovdey:

The mundane details of her eventual mating in the coming year are still being ironed out – much the same ado was made over the marriage of Queen Victoria –but the idea that Zenyatta could replicate herself by the mere act of insemination and foal birth is nuts. There was never, and never will be again, a Thoroughbred quite like Zenyatta.

http://drf.com/news/zenyatta-legend-takes-her-final-bow

[hockey2315]

Jay Hovdey:

In the meantime, take or leave this opportunity to say goodbye to one of the mostest hosses of a lifetime, and figure that Dylan was singing about her when he wrote the last part of "Eternal Circle" --

As the tune finally folded/
I laid down the guitar/
Then looked for the girl/
Who'd stayed for so long/
But her shadow was missin'/
For all of my searchin'/
So I picked up my guitar/
And began the next song

http://drf.com/blogs/aloha-zenyatta

[hockey2315]

Steve Haskin:

Many of us who cast our thoughts and opinions down on paper for a living have unashamedly left behind the pragmatic world of reason and logic and entered the sentimental world that Zenyatta inhabits. Once there, the compulsion to gush in public and paint scenes of flowering hills and colorful characters from My Little Pony is too strong to resist.

http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/horse...rney-ends.aspx

[hockey2315]

Joe Drape (I could probably quote every line he's written about her):

The New York Times has a policy of not allowing reporters to vote for awards, but if I had a vote, I would cast it with the more than 72,000 people who gave Zenyatta a warm and raucous reception as she returned to the grandstand with a tearful Mike Smith on her back. . .

My vote is with the people. Zenyatta is not only Horse of the Year. She’s the Horse of a Lifetime.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/sp...&ref=joe_drape

[hockey2315]

I'd post something from Pricci, but his website doesn't work.

[Danzig]

now, why did the thought 'syrup of ipecac' suddenly enter my mind.....

[The Indomitable DrugS]

I would go with Jon White rating her as the greatest horse - male or female - since Spectacular Bid.

Joe Drape never makes any sense - Hovdey is only capable of fluff - and I have absolutely no idea what Haskin is talking about...I've never seen My Little Pony and it sounds kind of gay.

You look at the two most dominant sires of my lifetime - Mr. Prospector and Storm Cat ... Mr. P was a sprinter who struggled badly to get a mile in his Derby Trial defeat. Storm Cat was a precocious 2-year-old speed horse who was fragile and didn't have much of a career despite being trained by a guy who rushes nothing and ruins nothing.

You look at the popularity of 2-year-old sales - a couple thousand babies pressed into trying to run 10 flat 1/8ths under-tack every year. You breed - or pinhook - a horse like The Green Monkey and you hit a home run.

Our best turf horse is sired by faint hearted speedball Tale of the Cat.

Our horses now completely suck at getting a distance. Who's our top North American finisher from the last 3 Breeders Cup Classics? Tiago, Zenyatta, and Blame. That's really murderers row right there. Who's our last 3 Kentucky Derby winners? Big Brown, Mine That Bird, and Super Saver .. what a powerhouse collection of soundness and quality right there. The Belmont is an eye-sore most years. They either have to set a painfully slow pace to get the distance - or else a Jazil will win it.

The way the breed is trending - it's becoming a more impressive accomplishment to breeze an outright bullet 1/4 at Fasig Tipton Calder than it is to be a top class distance horse on either surface. Just because Zenyatta's a great mare - and can stay a classic distance in an era when few still can - it doesn't mean we have to pretend she's way more than what she is.

[Port Conway Lane]

The only cynical comments I've seen concern some people's criticism of other's opinions. (nothing wrong with that)
Hard to find anything negative to say about Zenyatta and because she is honored at Hollywood Park today I think it's fair to say she was a remarkable racehorse who at least for me, made a rather dull year of racing a bit more interesting.

[ateamstupid]

How about absurd John Shirreffs quotes? Can we put those in here?

[pointman]

Originally Posted by hockey2315

Jay Hovdey:

The mundane details of her eventual mating in the coming year are still being ironed out – much the same ado was made over the marriage of Queen Victoria –but the idea that Zenyatta could replicate herself by the mere act of insemination and foal birth is nuts. There was never, and never will be again, a Thoroughbred quite like Zenyatta.

http://drf.com/news/zenyatta-legend-takes-her-final-bow

Sounds like he wants to personally do the insemination. Does he go by Smooth Operator on this forum?

[my miss storm cat]

Originally Posted by pointman

Sounds like he wants to personally do the insemination. Does he go by Smooth Operator on this forum?

Wow, I just had a Sumitas moment.

Okay well I don't know if this will count as it's not by journalist.

It is, however, by David Milch.

Respectfully, maybe not absurd but just a tad over the top? Teensy bit?

It’s the same sort of illusion felt if we are lucky enough to be blessed with children. When you see a baby you feel that whatever tragedy will ensue, at that moment tragedy is a stranger. The longer we are able to sustain that sense of a horse’s uncompromised, unqualified, transcendent excellence the more we become aware that it is an illusion, and every time that the horse seems to transcend the limits we know ultimately will express themselves, the more deeply we feel simultaneously joy and the sense ultimately that joy, for all its genuineness, is predicated on a sense of being and feeling which life will not sustain.

http://www.drf.com/news/final-and-deepest-gift-zenyatta