For me it goes like this, the results of the races this year point to the fact that when scribes are making their lists of the top 100 horses of the 21st century (at some point in the distant future) Zenyatta thus far deserves to be ranked higher than Rachel. Her ability to carry her top form from one year to the next is worthy of a lot of credit. A lot of horses - including, it would appear, RA - are simply unable to do that. Zenyatta has also demonstrated real ability on multiple surfaces over her career as a racehorse. For her career full of achievements she deserves - in my opinion - the higher overall regard. Congrats to Zenyatta and her swarms of fans (who bizarrely seem to live vicariously through her) on this achievement.
For me, that remains an entirely different question than the one of who deserved HOY last year. In my mind that was unquestionably Rachel Alexandra, and I don't see how that fact is in any way discredited by today's race, or by anything I wrote in the first paragraph.
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