Because Penny Chenery thought Zenyatta needed another award

[Merlinsky]

Pretty sure when her first foal is born, the event is gonna look something like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX07j9SDFcc

Is "Vox Populi" Latin for Pretty Horsie? Eh, she's big, she's beautiful, and she's a sweetheart so she does give us a good image publicly. I do think it's a different distinction from Horse of the Year and Hall of Fame status. Kind of a shame that Penny wasn't moved to create this honor for a horse like Barbaro who probably still enjoys a healthy amount of name recognition from the general public to this day and inspired donations and retirement efforts. This award's not going to gain too much attention outside the racing community. Zenyatta's amazing and deserves the love everyone's bestowed on her. I hope folks don't OD. I'm just waiting for them to announce a statue.

Has Santa Anita rechristened the Lady's Secret "the Zenyatta Stakes" again?

[Puddle Jumper]

Originally Posted by MaTH716

What kind of backlash? Do you honestly think that anybody who was going to play races this week thought about the HOY award, got disgusted and decided not to play? That is if they even knew the awards were given out Monday night. Like I said in a previous post, the majority of gamblers just don't care.

OK. "Backlash" was too strong, and I meant something like changing voter qualifications, as discussed in the Eclipse Spreadsheet thread, or the following:

http://www.thoroughbredtimes.com/nat...-criteria.aspx

While the idea of establishing more HOY criteria is not new, I just think that even more people inside the industry might call for changes. And whether they do or not, I'm sure you're right -- horseplayers will keep on playing.