BEYER: Defining Zenyatta's historical role

[Antitrust32]

All I know is that Smarty generated about a thousand times more hype in the "outside world" than Zenyaddayadda.

Funny Cide also, and Big Brown are ahead of Zenyaddayadda in the PR department.

Basically any horse that has come into the Belmont with a chance at a TC is ahead of Zenyadda in the PR department.

Rachel is ahead of Zenyadda in the PR department. People watched the Preakness.

[Arletta]

Popcorn anyone?

Attachment 1568

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

I'm wary to share this in my post because I really disagree with what Sightseek writes. With all the respect I have for her diminishing the more I think about it, let me say this:

You don't assassinate the character of an elite poster, let alone the best PR machine this board had since Arl Jim. Will DrugS go down in... history as the best poster of all time? Who knows. But he's the best in the game right now and his connections deserves better than some cheap excuse to bemoan a bad surface.

I will simply say that as a member of the media, an owner, and a lifelong racing fan: while an interesting read, this was a low blow to DrugS. Period.

Oh gee, this is possibly the worst news I have ever heard.

[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?

[Antitrust32]

Big Z could have possibly generated some PR outside of those crazy Californians if she had connections that were willing to race her outside of CALIFORNIA for cripes sake.

She's a supersized version of Lava Man.. the rest of the country doesnt know, hasnt seen, doesnt care.

[slotdirt]

Let's see, some 25k more people watched Smarty Jones try to win the Belmont than did Big Brown. State troopers gave Smarty Jones an escort up the NJ Turnpike to get to Belmont in June 2004. Hell, like 10k showed up to watch him wander down Philly Park post-retirement. Meanwhile, the only retirement ceremony Big Brown got was to show his giant weiner to Scavs.

Yes, I can see how someone would come to the conclusion that Big Brown did more for racing's popularity than Smarty Jones.

[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.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Let's see, some 25k more people watched Smarty Jones try to win the Belmont than did Big Brown. State troopers gave Smarty Jones an escort up the NJ Turnpike to get to Belmont in June 2004. Hell, like 10k showed up to watch him wander down Philly Park post-retirement. Meanwhile, the only retirement ceremony Big Brown got was to show his giant weiner to Scavs.

Yes, I can see how someone would come to the conclusion that Big Brown did more for racing's popularity than Smarty Jones.

[slotdirt]

Of the Derby-Preakness winners in the post-Affirmed era, I'd say Big Brown was the one horse whose attempt at immortality was the least followed by the casual observer, with maybe only War Emblem coming close.

[Thunder Gulch]

I just hope she shows up at Churchill. It won't settle everything, but win or lose, the losing side of the argument will have a lot less to defend their position with.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Pathetic is EVERY Hovdey blog.

FTFY

[slotdirt]

Originally Posted by Dahoss

FTFY

Thank you. Fluff doesn't even begin to describe 99.3 percent of what he writes these days.

[Dahoss]

Originally Posted by slotdirt

Thank you. Fluff doesn't even begin to describe 99.3 percent of what he writes these days.

If he isn't on Moss and Shirreffs payroll he should be.

[Smooth Operator]

If Z can pull off back-to-back Classics, it won't matter what any of these guys write.


Mike has to stay focused and take care of business this Saturday, tho.

Gunna have to move her a little earlier than usual (like he did last time) to make sure that one of them doesn't get too brave and steal this thing at the relatively short distance.

[slotdirt]

Sunday Silence was a great story. Real Quiet, Charismatic, Silver Charm for the Baffert Factor, Pleasant Colony and Spectacular Bid so close after the back-to-back 77-78 Triple Crown efforts.

In any event, I was there on Belmont Day 2004 as well as 2008, and there really wasn't a comparison, though the fact that it was about 100 degrees in 2008 and the pissers didn't work probably didn't help.

[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.

[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.

[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...