Again, said better than I:
Written by John Pricci
http://www.horseraceinsider.com/blog.ph ... -zenyatta/
Friday, November 27, 2009
“Shhhhh, Do You Want to Know a Zenyatta?”
SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, November 27, 2009--The electioneering that the Oak Tree Racing Association is doing on behalf of the Zenyatta for Horse of the Year campaign is obvious and a little unworthy of what‘s ultimately at stake.
When it was announced about a week ago that Santa Anita was going to be giving Zenyatta at Santa Anita Park, I thought it a great idea, worthy of a perfectly great filly of singular accomplishment.
It was also timely, before being sent home to be bred. She earned this recognition the old fashioned way; between the fences.
In my view, it was certainly more appropriate than the award given her recently by the Turf Publicists of America, a hosanna to the people in the sport who were generous of spirit, giving their time in service to the game and by making themselves and their horses available for promotional opportunity.
But I must admit, in the language of the Internet, I did an LOL when I considered that Team Zenyatta were given an award called the “Big Sport of Turfdom.”
Yes, the Mosses and the Shirreffs were always available in service to the industry without equivocation. But when I think “Big Sport,” I think it should mean what that means. To me, the meaning traditionally reserved for that kind of nomenclature is when people accept big challenges in the name of sport.
But what was sporting about taking a path of the least resistance possible, a four-race campaign in which she beat 22 of mostly-the-same rivals, essentially public workouts for pay, even if her entire year was predicated on, and culminated with, an unforgettable career finale on a non-dirt surface?
The only reason Zenyatta raced in the Classic was because it was her only chance to catch a three-year-old rival she never met, one that compiled what appeared to many as an insurmountable lead in the quest for Horse of the Year honors.
And if the early polling on this site is any measure, the decision to run in, and win, the Breeders’ Cup Classic might prove the winning gambit after all.
But in terms of the rest of her Horse of the Year “season,” it was a campaign devoid of meaningful challenges. No points are scored for shipping to Churchill Downs for her season’s debut only to scratch when the Louisville dirt came up a sea of slop.
As I recall, Zenyatta’s connections began making scratch noises days before the race and, at some point, had she remained in the East, she might have found a dry surface to race on, like the dirt surface over which she was so impressive at Oaklawn Park in 2008.
It that context, Zenyatta retires as a one-dirt wonder. Ultimately, however, Team Zenyatta earns a pass as no one truly knows what motivation people have when they do the things they do. But neither does it allow for having things both ways.
So, then, what’s my beef? It’s this week’s press release from the Oak Tree Racing Association which reads, in part:
“In the wake of what many consider to be the most dramatic performance in Breeders' Cup history, the Oak Tree Racing Association has announced that the undefeated superstar mare Zenyatta, a devastating last-to-first winner of the million Breeders' Cup Classic (G1) on November 7, will be honored by having the name of the race she won in both 2008 and 2009, the Lady's Secret S. (G1), renamed the Zenyatta, effective next year. The Lady's Secret, which was inaugurated in 1993, is for fillies and mares and run at 1 1 1/16 miles.
"When the history books are written, we feel that what Zenyatta accomplished here on November 7 will go down as one of the all-time great achievements in American racing," Oak Tree Director and Executive Vice President Sherwood Chillingworth said.
"Lady's Secret was a great mare herself. She won the (Breeders' Cup) Distaff (G1) here in 1986 and went on to be named Horse of the Year but what Zenyatta did here against the best horses in the world is something none of us who witnessed it will ever forget.
"At first, Jerry [owner Moss] was reluctant to accept our offer of renaming the race because he was a personal friend of Gene Klein, [Lady’s Secret’s owner]" Chillingworth added.
"But after he and Ann thought about it for a couple of days, he called back and said they thought Zenyatta would be flattered by the comparison and to know that she was held in such high esteem."
I can remember two decades ago when the New York Racing Association, capable of being as overzealous as the next racing jurisdiction, in the heyday of Easy Goer vs. Sunday Silence (in alphabetical order, please note) it never electioneered as Oak Tree did so zealously this week.
“Most dramatic,” “superstar,” “devastating” in the first 32 words of the release--and that’s including articles.
"It is particularly appropriate,” Chillingworth continued, “in that she won the Lady's Secret two years in a row, and like Lady's Secret, we feel strongly that Zenyatta should be Horse of the Year. Her brilliance is undeniable and we are proud to rename this prestigious race in her honor..."
It’s not so much that an aspiring Horse of the Year should replace the honored memory of another great filly who already had earned the ultimate prize, that was tacky enough.
But it’s timing, with Eclipse ballots about a week away from distribution, appears a very thinly veiled attempt to keep the Zenyatta brand in the minds of Eclipse voters, perhaps hoping to sway the fence-sitters.
The great filly that was shunted aside this week was the 1986 Horse of the Year. Six years later she was in the Hall of Fame. A winner of 25 of 45 career starts, she finished worse than second only 11 times. In her Horse of the Year season she won EIGHT Grade 1s and defeated males FOUR times.
Fourteen-for-fourteen is, as previously stated, a singular achievement. But it doesn’t earn you the title “The Iron Lady.”
If the intent truly was to honor the mare at the site of her greatest triumphs, Oak Tree could have consulted with the Los Angeles Turf Club, perhaps co-sponsoring a race in Zenyatta’s memory at the winter-spring meeting since only one G1 for fillies and mares is available in non-Breeders‘ Cup years.
Renaming the G1 Santa Maria Handicap would have meant just as much for her fans. That race is run under the same conditions as the Lady’s Secret. Another option might have been to change the distance of seven furlong G1 Santa Monica which also might have required an adjustment to the stakes calendar.
If you didn’t want to take that tack, given the political or business considerations, Oak Tree at least might have waited until Horse of the Year voting was closed.
Where do you weigh in on this one FOS? Love to hear. Maybe they forgot Lady's Secret HOY campaign? For those of you who forgot, here's JUST THE LAST 3 MONTHS of her HOY campaign, where she won SEVEN grade 1's... 3 against males.
