Oh wow. Wow. That video is awesome.

Wow. That's a terribly inaccurate list.

Interesting that you include stakes that Quality Road won, Sea the Stars won, that horses won in years past while claiming that it was this year, a Grade III already disqualified by the previous problem, and a race that hasn't even been run yet in 2009.

1 pound and she didn't need it. I beleive RA got 6 or 9 pounds which she needed to hold on.

Zenyatta was in receipt of three pounds from Gio Ponti and the other males.

NT

for starters, exactly when did zenyatta face pioneerof the nile, or the pamplemousse? and i guess it's the clark brian was asking about, since there is no '09 winner as yet.

sorry, included Colonal Johns three year old wins, guess they did not happen in Brown's argument.

not sure what jerry brown has to do with your post about winners this year that zenyatta faced in the classic. or what the winner of the irish championship has to do with it either, since sea the stars didn't come to the bc this year.

Actually 7 of those 24 listed are no good -- totally shoddy work, and yet another "throw it at the wall and see what sticks/who is paying attention" type argument.

But she still got that dirty head past Anabaa's Creation. And that counts for something as the winner of.....a second-level allowance.

yeah, that's why i said for starters...i knew there were more than the ones i mentioned.

I did the dirty work for you :D

And the hilarious thing is that I don't even dislike Zenyatta. I think she's awesome. I think Rachel earned this fair and square and accomplished significantly more -- and it's telling that those arguing in favor of that use history, races, performances, and analysis to make their case while those arguing against it are just trying to find something, ANYTHING that comes close to working...and that's either emotion (which should have nothing to do with it) or half-truths, or in the case of that clusterf*ck of a post above about the GI/GII winners above, a 70% truth, if rounding up.

yeah, me too.

lol! I guess nobody watched the Preakness? haha. what an argument!

Read this Brown piece again … and it still makes no sense.

Face it, Jerry … the 3-year-old colts were mediocre, at best, this year … and the sad fact is … some of them are probably better than the older mules she (barely) hung on to beat in the Woodward.

Wasn't exactly like she was getting the best of a Bernardini … or a Mineshaft … out there.


The REAL challenge for the filly was coming out to the coast and taking on the undefeated, Eclipse-award-winning Breeders' Cup champion mare … and she was a NO SHOW.

No one in their right mind could vote for her over Z, in my opinion … but that's the problem … too many of these voters are out of their minds.

Take 2004, for instance … a significant number of them actually cast their ballots for SJ as HotY.

This was pure insanity when you had a brilliant older horse which not only proved that he was the fastest sprinter in the country … but the fastest router, as well.

Even though it cant happen, but i feel Gio Ponti is as good as these two. He is a champ on the Turf and tried to be on the dirt, not his surface. Could there be another horse that we are overlooking or is it a slam dunk between these two. Has either one of these fillies ran on the Turf? Just a thought.

They both won.

How are you certain that the weight played an issue in either race?

Maybe I'm missing the significance of weight. Are they like the Lifelines used on "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire"?

Was Calvin Borel allowed to pull out 8 1lb pieces of lead from his saddle and chuck them at Macho Again as he closed the gap?

I better check the replay.

Nice arguments and discussions.

I'm impatient.

Anyone who doesn't think Zenyatta deserves Horse of the Year is an ignorant slut.

...

Is this a suggestion that as a 3 year old filly, Rachel Alexandra beating elder males is somehow diminished by the weight scale? The Woodward is WFA... weight for age, the international scale of equine competition. Elders are assigned 126 pounds; 3yo's 121; females get a 3# allowance. Hence, as a 3yo female, Rachel Alexandra carried 118 while the 7 elder males carried 126. This is the scale of weight. A three year old filly facing elder males, a challenge so outlandish that it more or less hadn't been done in this country in 100+ years, is entitled to the allowance.

Some clarity on Weight for Age:

Weight for Age (WFA) is a term in Thoroughbred horse racing which is one of the conditions for a race. It means that a horse will carry a set weight in accordance with the Weight for Age Scale. This weight varies depending on the horse’s age, its sex, the race distance and the month of the year. Weight for age races are usually Group 1 races, races of the highest quality.

WFA is a method of trying to equal out the physical progress which the average thoroughbred racehorse makes as it matures. The thoroughbred matures extremely quickly compared to the human being. By the age of two the horse has achieved 95% of its mature height and weight, and by the end of its third year it will be fully mature. To allow for this variation in maturity in the context of racing, it is necessary to express it as a function of the weight a horse will carry in a race. It is also necessary to take into account the race distance because stamina comes with maturity, and younger horses are at a greater disadvantage the further they have to run. If no allowance was made, a mature older horse would always beat a younger one.

Good read in the Bloodhorse on the subject by Steve Haskins. Interesting in that the bloodhorse poll is running almost exactly opposite the NY Times poll with about 60% Zenyatta

Gio is a great horse, but he didn't try to do anything on a dirt surface this year.