Crist: Zenyatta needs to earn title on track
 

http://www.drf.com/news/zenyatta-must-earn-title-track

A couple snippets...

If, however, Zenyatta loses the Classic to Blame, Lookin At Lucky, or Quality Road, she does not deserve to be the Horse of the Year for 2010. She may well be the Horse of the Last Three Years or Distaffer of the Decade, and she might be the only horse in the field who ultimately is elected to racing’s Hall of Fame, but she would not be the most accomplished racehorse of 2010.

It would indeed be a historical curiosity if Zenyatta never won a Horse of the Year award despite three sensational campaigns, but it would be neither unprecedented nor disparaging of her achievements and her secure and rightful place among racing’s greatest fillies. Dozens of other great females from Shuvee and Ruffian to Bayakoa and Personal Ensign were never Horse of the Year, nor should they have been.

Ut oh....



I think she will get it though this year...after all, look what she has done for racing :)

Not to mention sign makers

If Zenyatta wins the BC Classic, she deserves all the accolades and all the awards that can be laid at her feet.

I think she can pull it off.

I've always been and shall remain a Rachel fan but never at the expense of dissing Zenyatta.

Tear

Statements like this make me root against her, and I don't want to.

It's one thing for people outside the sport to look at her record and go "DURRR SHE NEVAH LOST BEST HORSE EVAH" but for people who follow the sport to say things like "if she wins the Classic, every award she gets and everything that's said about her is justified", it's frankly mindboggling. It's wildly untrue.

This is nonsense.

It's common sense which doesn't apply with this fanbase. She has her shot on the track, so no excuses for her, Blame, Lucky, and Quality Road.

Some people will argue the shape of a sidewalk crack and go to the trouble of picking fly dirt out of pepper. It's my opinion, so CHILL.

Just to confirm, your opinion is, essentially, if she wins the Classic, she can rightfully be called the greatest horse ever. If she loses, then it's up for debate. Beating Blame and Lookin at Lucky will catapult her into the top spot.

STILL

I couldn't agree more with Mr.Crist. I think he is spot on.

If Zenyatta is greatest horse ever for winning 2 Classics, then what is Tiznow?

Tiznow didn't dance.

Same here.


--Dunbar

if somehow she does win it will be the Classic everyone will remember. Like last year I'll be going against her at the windows but will be applauding should she win.

BTW a waiter w/no clue who knows I play told me there's a 'girl' horse who always spots the field 100 yards going on BC day and she won't do that this time. LOL

I said then she's dead and the look he had was like a puppy getting hit w/a bat by his owner

Like the 40th greatest horse ever

Aw - yes - words are cut apart with scalpel precision. I didn't mean to imply that she would deserve the title of the "greatest horse ever". Greater than Secretariat or even CIGAR? Not in my opinion. Rather, if she wins the Classic, she would justifiably deserve 2010 Horse of the Year, a future spot in Racing's Hall of Fame, perhaps classified as the greatest or one of the greatest mares of all time.

I'm not being coy or veiled in sarcasm when I say that I am prepared for the groundswell of overexuberance by all those people who have felt that she had gotten robbed the previous two years in the Eclipse voting. And, suffice it to say, IF she does wins the Classic, a great many "people who follow the sport" in a much higher ionosphere in experience and knowledge than me will be laying all kinds of laurels at her feet ad infinitum and ad nauseum for months, if not years, to come. This mare will be hyped until one's mind goes numb. Some may even go so far as to say she's "the greatest", but I'm sure their peers will set that record straight.

So gird your loins and keep lots of Di-Gel on hand for those of you who think differently.

I think she's going to win, and it will be fun to watch the celebration and the endless flow of words using new-found phrases of praise for her accomplishments.

And, beating Blame, Looking at Lucky, Quality Road, and all the rest of the boys on dirt a couple thousand miles away from her comfort CA homebase is an accomplishment. It would be the greatest accomplishment of her career if she can pull it off.

Most of the people who are fanatics of Camp Z don't really know **** about racing in the first place.For instance:http://www.horseracing.com/blog/20-and-done-means-no-1
Dude was definitely hitting the crack pipe a little too much!!

Those people are morons. She didn't deserve either HOY.

Too late. This is already happening.

Once again, this has long been happening. They're very difficult to 'set straight'.

This is true, but it says far more about the yawnworthy campaigns she's run than it does about her accomplishment.