BEYER: Defining Zenyatta's historical role

[Port Conway Lane]

Originally Posted by Antitrust32

& the best PR machine since the 70's??? LOL thats why so many non racing fans are following Z's career

No horse in the past decade holds a candle to Smarty Jones as far as PR goes.

I'm not so sure Smarty Jones garnered any more non racing fans than Big Brown. Both horses had all of three weeks in the spotlight. I'm not saying Zenyatta is the PR machine this woman says she is but if you polled a thousand people at random to name a racehorse who ran in the last ten years I'd be surprised if Smarty jones would be holding the candle at the very top of the list.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by Port Conway Lane

I'm not so sure Smarty Jones garnered any more non racing fans than Big Brown. Both horses had all of three weeks in the spotlight. I'm not saying Zenyatta is the PR machine this woman says she is but if you polled a thousand people at random to name a racehorse who ran in the last ten years I'd be surprised if Smarty jones would be holding the candle at the very top of the list.

Smarty Jones was connected to likeable people, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and got tons of coverage in mainstream media (even before the Derby). There was a story there...the horse who had a terrible accident, the dying owner, the blue collar family man trainer. Nothing was likeable about Big Brown but the horse. I know plently of people (myself included and a few other regulars on this board) who became attracted to the sport because of the media (overhyped or not) over Smarty, I've never heard anyone say they became a fan because of Big Brown.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

Smarty Jones was connected to likeable people,

Decrepit car dealer for an owner, a trainer who wastes his time hunting, and Stew Elliot as a jockey?

That's a trifecta of likability if I've ever seen one.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Decrepit car dealer for an owner, a trainer who wastes his time hunting, and Stew Elliot as a jockey?

That's a trifecta of likability if I've ever seen one.

Obviously the media did not portray them as this.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

Obviously the media did not portray them as this.

Your "likable connections" comment seemed to be a veiled shot at Big Brown's connections.

If you ask me - a slippery wop owner, a cheating trainer, and a drunk cajun jockey with a hot old lady are connections I can dig.

[Sightseek]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Your "likable connections" comment seemed to be a veiled shot at Big Brown's connections.

If you ask me - a slippery wop owner, a cheating trainer, and a drunk cajun jockey with a hot old lady are connections I can dig.

This doesn't come as a surprise considering you romantically write about raping and pillaging people.

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

This doesn't come as a surprise considering you romantically write about raping and pillaging people.

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.

[GPK]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

Decrepit car dealer for an owner, a trainer who wastes his time hunting, and Stew Elliot as a jockey?

That's a trifecta of likability if I've ever seen one.

This factor alone should define Smarty's greatness.

[Gate Dancer]

Renowned author and longtime Washington Post columnist Andy Beyer will be Kurt Hoover’s guest on the first Inside Scoop of the Oak Tree meet at Hollywood Park on Saturday, Oct. 2.

It will be interesting to see what kind of a reception Mr. Beyer gets now......................

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by Gate Dancer

Renowned author and longtime Washington Post columnist Andy Beyer will be Kurt Hoover’s guest on the first Inside Scoop of the Oak Tree meet at Hollywood Park on Saturday, Oct. 2.

It will be interesting to see what kind of a reception Mr. Beyer gets now......................

This guy is going to crush Beyer.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-A1ps_m7Jk

[Gate Dancer]

Originally Posted by The Indomitable DrugS

This guy is going to crush Beyer.....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-A1ps_m7Jk

He's bigger but I think Andy might be quicker................Beyer by TKO in the 5th round.

[Port Conway Lane]

Originally Posted by Sightseek

Smarty Jones was connected to likeable people, was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and got tons of coverage in mainstream media (even before the Derby). There was a story there...the horse who had a terrible accident, the dying owner, the blue collar family man trainer. Nothing was likeable about Big Brown but the horse. I know plently of people (myself included and a few other regulars on this board) who became attracted to the sport because of the media (overhyped or not) over Smarty, I've never heard anyone say they became a fan because of Big Brown.

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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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...

[johnny pinwheel]

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.

amen. no, hes not biased either after his numbers said zenyatta was slow last year....oh wait a minute, then she won the BC classic. must be the surface...oh, the horse won two graded stakes on the dirt too.....that doesn't count. it almost makes me want her to win at churchill. just to read what kind of garbage makes her not "historical" after that....what a joke of an article....did it even have a point? i noticed the trend that these articles usually come up after his numbers get tanked or he has to justify them. if she was not one of the best horses of the last decade.....who is andy? i thought you followed this game...lol....lol,

[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.