Zenyatta's late pace figs

[The Indomitable DrugS]

Originally Posted by miraja2

Did she actually run faster early in the BCC last year than she typically had been? Visually it looked like she was running about the same

The pace call is 6f - so yes - she ran faster in the BC Classic to that point of the race than she typically had been running.

She basically ran the first furlong or two like she would in any of her synthetic races - but Mike Smith already started to ask her by the time she got to the first turn.

Denman gave the inevitable 'Zenyatta is having to be ridden along a little' call - I think at like the midway point of the first turn. Had she run to her prior races - she would have been about 25 lengths off the pace with four furlongs to go. Had Smith let that happen ... instead of a 133 late pace figure - she might have blitzed late with something like her 155 she ran in the '08 Apple Blossom.