Who Is Horse Of The Year?

[2Hot4TV]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

I'm having a hard time swallowing this. If taking one chance in a big race trumps taking a chance in two or three races, and winning each time, then what's next?

Come on Travis, you have seen alot of races and what Zenyatta showed was a race horse that has the will to win and with her stride she is perfect for 10 furlongs. At equal weights she would be real hard to beat at 10 f with any decent pace. AS far as HOY, it doesnt matter.

[RockHardTen1985]

Its not the better horse award... I beleive Zenyatta is better, its HOY and I beleive Rachel deserves it.

[dalakhani]

I love the fact that its even a discussion. In the last two years, we have seen four wonderful fillies in Goldikova, Zarkava, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta.

In this argument, I have to side with the Zenyatta camp. Rachel Alexander ran a great campaign that has to be considered one for the ages so what I am saying isnt at all trying to impugn her body of work. To me, its all a circular argument anyway.

To me there is something to be said about stepping up in the brightest of lights and displaying greatness against the best. Those bright lights arent at monmouth park in august and they arent at saratoga in the first week of september. The best aren't two credible competitors in a seven horse field.

The brightest lights in horse racing in this country were at Santa Anita Park on November 7th in a full unrestricted field that was the most competitive of the of year. Zenyatta showed up and dominated and gave the performance of her life and to me the performance of the year.

Zenyatta is horse of the year in my book.

[Travis Stone]

Originally Posted by 2Hot4TV

Come on Travis, you have seen alot of races and what Zenyatta showed was a race horse that has the will to win and with her stride she is perfect for 10 furlongs. At equal weights she would be real hard to beat at 10 f with any decent pace. AS far as HOY, it doesnt matter.

She is no doubt custom made for ten panels. But she really did have a good run through the pack in that all the holes opened-up when she needed them. Yeah, she had to go and get them a bit, but she's good and that's what good ones do.

This whole HOTY debate is tough because people think you're knocking one or the other, which isn't the case at all.

Zenyatta was awesome on Saturday and it really saddens me we couldn't see her do that in a few more exciting spots. And unfortunately for them, and this is not a slap on their character at all, but I think it costs her Horse of the Year in the end. We'll see.

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by Travis Stone

Zenyatta was awesome on Saturday and it really saddens me we couldn't see her do that in a few more exciting spots. And unfortunately for them, and this is not a slap on their character at all, but I think it costs her Horse of the Year in the end. We'll see.

No matter how many more "exciting spots," she would have trouble getting this award. If people want to ignore the horse that won the most money/biggest race, then they're gunna do it. Look how much trouble Gomez had before he finally got his Eclipse Award.

[NTamm1215]

Originally Posted by SCUDSBROTHER

No matter how many more "exciting spots," she would have trouble getting this award. If people want to ignore the horse that won the most money/biggest race, then they're gunna do it. Look how much trouble Gomez had before he finally got his Eclipse Award.

Well Armed earned more money than her and as far as Zenyatta winning the biggest race and that being the only criteria where do Pleasantly Perfect, Volponi and Raven's Pass' connections file their complaints for being snubbed?

NT

[SCUDSBROTHER]

Originally Posted by NTamm1215

Well Armed earned more money than her and as far as Zenyatta winning the biggest race and that being the only criteria where do Pleasantly Perfect, Volponi and Raven's Pass' connections file their complaints for being snubbed?

NT

Well Armed won most of his money in one of those Mo-Nut-Liquor Countries. That money isn't supposed to be taken into account for this award. The reasons for Volponi n' RP not getting it are obvious. The reason for PP is because he wasn't active at all for long periods of the year (Mineshaft dominated those periods of the year, and got injured right before the B.C.) It's been 6 years now. Hopefully that's accurate......One of the reasons I don't miss the SOCAL dirt tracks is because they tended to get as biased as that Dubai track was that day. Also, horses didn't come back from races (on our dirt) quickly enough to fill fields well. A problem with the synthetic out here(especially Pro-Ride n' Del Mar Poly) is that trainers often bring young horses back too quickly off a nice debut effort on it (#2 be poo.) The chances of that(#2 be poo) are even more increased with those damn incessant 7f maiden races they seemed to be writing at Anita.