Whirlaway wrote:Her career-high 112 Beyers Figure in that race is tied with Saint Liam for 2nd lowest in the races's 26 year history.
That's nice. I hope you don't base your handicapping career on what Andy Beyer says. You'll go away holding a lot of worthless tickets.
How many track records has she equaled or set? Say zero; zilch; nada; none.
If your definition of "phenomenal horse" is equaling or setting track records, that means Invasor, Holy Bull, Sunline, Seattle Slew, Sunday Silence, Winning Colors, Lady's Secret, and Personal Ensign were not phenomenal horses.
I see a three-time champion older mare, who, in her career, handily disposed of the 2009 champion older HORSE, 2009 champion 3yo colt, 2007 and 2008 champion Canadian mares, 2009 Japanese champion dirt horse, 2010 Jockey Club Gold Cup and Woodward Stakes, 2009 Kentucky and Santa Anita Derby winners, 2009 BC Ladies Classic winner, and nine other Gr-1 winning fillies, along with about a dozen other very good colts. That's a pretty phenomenal horse.
Oh yeah, she broke the stakes record for the El Encino stakes in 2008.
"She finally decided the hell with it and went on. She ran the last quarter in 23 4/5. Horse don't run last quarters in 23 and change when they don't handle the track. This argument is preposterous."
Is that time correct? Doubtful you have reviewed the official chart . . .
You expose your ignorance here, as well as insult Zinn. The official chart does NOT list the split times of individual runners. The official chart lists the split time made by the first horse to cross a particular marker. If the first horse past the quarter pole was Old Sparky, and Old Sparky ran the last quarter in 24 flat, and Coo Coo Ca Choo was six lengths behind old Sparky at the quarter pole and finished second to him by a head at the wire, then Coo Coo Ca Choo HAD to run that last quarter faster than 24 flat. The chart will only list Old Sparky's time.
That is what happened with Zenyatta yesterday. You can pull up the race on YouTube, mark the time she starts her big run, mark the finish time, and then do a bit of basic maths (V = d * t).
It is my opinion the main reason they didn't make all those trips is because she would have been beaten; why tarnish an unblemished record? Horses have been shipped cross country, cross oceans since there was horse racing . . . The lethal injection seems kind of extreme when one can use a tranquilizer.
It is MY opinion that they were trying to keep her streak alive, and they did a cracking good job at it.
As far as lethal injections and tranquilizers, stop and think about why that syringe is on board. What happens when you get a shipping colic? It happens, and it's darn tricky to deal with at 30,000 feet. If you get a really bad colic on a 6-hour flight from San Diego to New York, a down-and-thrashing or twisted gut, you're screwed. You can't stop mid-flight to get somebody to the clinic. And, ironically, the use of tranquilizers in horses is similar to vicodin in people...they can slow down or temporarily paralyze the gut, which makes the likelihood of colic higher. If you have a horse truly go batshit mid-air, there is no tranquilizer on this planet that will calm them down that the handlers can administer safely. That little syringe of the blue dream is there for a bloody good reason, and everybody on that flight hopes they'll never, ever need to use it.
