Yes. This year they MUST vote on HOY based on how they feel the horse will do in 2011. Voting on the actual year in question is outrageous.

Perhaps her reputation was enhanced by beating up on subpar competition last year and being that she matured early didnt have much improvement left?

Either way it is really hard to give her an excuse for todays race. How she was ridden is not a valid excuse.

If i had first read your post i would have simply agreed

And Zardana was heard muttering something about the Rockies as they led her back to the barn

While I agree she has probably accomplished enough already to be considered a HoF filly, her losses really show how the premature retirement of horses substantially affects our ability to judge them against the stars of the past.

Yes. This year's results should have definitely been taken into consideration when they voted last year. Apparently the voters didn't have a "Go to the future" machine where they could have seen this year's races before voting.

I wonder what you were thinking when RA won up at Sar last year. Probably had to delete the "RA EXPOSED AGAIN" line from your post you were about to write....same thing must have happened after The Haskell as well.

What I don't get is the people who whined that Zenyatta got robbed last year think that this years races should be taken into account. Let it go. RA was the better horse last year. So far this year Zenyatta is the better horse.

And we will once again get to see Zenyatta beat a field of hopless horses back in So Cal at Hollywood next out. Real adventurous scheduling again by the Moss's. Apparently, unlike the rest of the racing world, they don't find it embarassing to run against 5 horse fields in So Cal.

I thought Rachel ran well today. She's obviously not the same Rachel we watched last year, cause she won the close one's last year. But she ran a game race. Its not like she ran 5th by 20.

If you want to say RA accomplished more last year and desreved the HoY more than Z, I would agree. Who was the better horse? How can you definitely say?

Ran well relative to??? She ran a close 2nd to a pretty good filly. There is no disgrace in that. But there is nothing that she ran against last year that has done a thing this year. Nothing.

Ra vs. Z??
Look over the longer period of time. Z as put together several good years.
Ra has a short span of being good. Hands down the big Z is and will be the better when you compare them.

Maybe they will just haul her over to the farm tonight and throw her in the stall with Curlin , perhaps that is what she is trying to tell them.

I just thought she ran a good race. Obviously not relative to last year.

Which is why the 4 yr old campaign of Spec Bid is unparalleled in racing history.

no offense, but you can only compare them if they race against each other.

when does breeding season end?

Until they face each other nobody can really say who is better. Last year they both were great....but RA definitely accomplished much more. If The Moss's had not played "scared" all year and won the Hollywood Gold Cup or The Pacific Classic, and not faced a bunch of turds last year then one could argue she deserved it. But her campaign up until The BC was embarassing.

Hopefully they get to meet this year to settle the score.

Maybe she's "pining for the fjords." You're welcome, Monty Python fans.

I'd love to watch either Rachel and Zenyatta run without arguing about how talented a horse is who's not even in the race. This is tiresome.

Ideally she would have been bred by now , Im no expert but you gotta think that in the next couple of weeks breeding season will have ended , even at that it would still make it a late foal.
The filly just isnt cracking 11 and change 1/8ths like she was last year , she is getting slow fractions and cant accelerate off of them , sometimes when fillies run like she did last year and then get time off they just say the heck with it . Im not saying she didnt try today , what Im saying is her brilliance is not there.

Why should Rachel retire? She has been competitive in 2 races this year losing by no more than a combined length. I'm sure the numbers guys will tell us she will beyer better than the 100 she got in the N.O Ladies and that would put her in the 107 range of the Woodward, so what's wrong with that? Unless people's opinions of her were so sky high to begin with, :rolleyes: then maybe it is a big surprise then. She lost to a very good filly and Rachel ran a good race give both some credit.

Pretty sure you're wrong about that. And she ran a 109 in the Woodward.

They had that chance, but backed out. Do you think its a fear factor on Jess's part?