[brianwspencer]

Originally Posted by Danzig

far more to it then figures, altho that is an easy way to point to supremacy. rachel has won by huge margins, has set records, came close to the record in the haskell while wide and on the slop..has taken on and beaten the boys not once, but twice, in grade one company-her latter race by open lengths (just like every race this year except the preakness), has run on how many tracks now? and is now going to take on open company.
zenyatta was all out to win by a scant nose vs her peers, you don't need more than one hands worth of fingers to count how many tracks she's run on, has not taken on males in her age group, or taken on open company. her lack of racing and lack of competition are strikes against her. were she not a one run closer, she wouldn't get near the attention, but for some reason race fans love those one run closers. is she the reigning distaff champ? yes. does that mean anything this year? no. she'll get top older mare while rachel could well get HOTY.

I like Zenyatta, but it's important to put this in perspective too. Nobody is saying that Rachel is beating up on any soon-to-be legendary superstars by any stretch, but Zenyatta's "peers" this year are for the most part, not even close to Grade I quality in any way ....here's what I said elsewhere as far as facing quality competition.

Of the three runners-up in Zenyatta's 2009 races, Life Is Sweet is the only one who even belongs in the conversation.

Let's not get carried away by her gutsy Clement Hirsch win over the barely Grade III-quality (at best...I'm being generous here) Anabaa's Creation who was sent postward in that spot at 22-1 off a scintillating no-excuses 5th-place finish against 3rd-level allowance company in her prior start, and who hasn't proven herself to be of any significant class (at least of the kind we'd be talking about when discussing the "real race horses" our leading HOY contender had beaten!) since 2007.

Or perhaps we're talking about Briecat, whose career highlight came in winning the Grade II Bayakoa against six other foes, but whose 2009 record is marginal at best, considering that she has been soundly, borderline embarrassingly-beaten in all of her 2009 starts except for...wait for it...the time she ran within two and a half lengths of Zenyatta. Her other four starts of the year have led to drubbings of a combined 39 lengths against inferior competition.

Of course you can pick at Rachel's opponents too, but let's be intellectually honest here and cut the pretending that there is some great talent disparity between who they are beating. And something tells me that Rachel wouldn't be life and death to beat Anabaa's Creation either, but that's pure conjecture on my part.