It doesn't look good for Zenyatta
Equidaily.com surveyed 10 Eclipse Award voters this week and nine of the 10 said they cast their Horse of the Year vote for reigning champion Curlin. The Eclipse Awards ceremony is Monday night in Miami. TVG will televise the event, beginning at 4 p.m. The Horse of the Year announcement is expected around 6:30.
My pick is Zenyatta. I think the fact she went 7-0 and won on Breeders' Cup day against a high-class field trumps anything Curlin accomplished in 2008. Granted, he won the Dubai World Cup, but his other wins came against suspect competition. Zenyatta thoroughly defeated reigning Distaff champion Ginger Punch twice last year and also had to dispose of the talented Cocoa Beach in the Ladies' Classic on Breeders' Cup day. She wasn't just a synthetic track specialist, either. Arguably her most powerful victory came on the dirt at Oaklawn Park in April when she toyed with
Does the East Coast bias still exist? I think so. It's alive and well and about to help Curlin, a horse that lost twice in 2008, win Horse of the Year over a mare that is undefeated and dominated her division like no other horse.
hate to say it, love Zenyatta, but they should have run her against males at least once to attempt to secure horse of the year. say what you want, but the males Curlin beat, in and out of the country mean much more then the small fields mostly in cali your girl took on. If she was better she should have proved so against males as Zarkava did in the Arc.
Does the West Coast bias still exist? I think so!
Anonymous told it like it is.
It would be disgraceful to give the HOY award to a horse that has run in restricted races (Zenyatta against fillies and mares only).
Bert,
Disgraceful to give Horse of the Year to a brilliant unbeaten filly who has shown she can win on BOTH dirt and synthetics over a horse that lost twice and whose connections used the surface as an excuse when he lost in the Breeders' Cup? I think not.
The fillies and mares that Zenyatta beat were of higher caliber overall than the males that Curlin beat, plain and simple.
Curlin Lovers,
To hear you all talk, you'd think that Zenyatta won restricted allowance races or overnight stakes. This is a filly that has won graded races, beat the best in her division in graded races! Where does it say that a horse has to go outside his/her division before they can be crowned a champion? Wow!
Why does the racing community always get caught up is argument when it comes to a great Filly racer? Zenyatta is an amazing runner, her size and long stride are second to none but desire to win is what sets her apart. She hesitates and stunbles out of the gate against Hysterical Lady, riden by jockey of the year Gomez, but still runs her down in the stretch with NO WHIP. This determination to win and the ability required to pull it off are a rare combination only found in racing's greats. Zenyatta is Horse of the Year with or without the Eclipse.
TJ,
I wholeheartedly agree. I think, plain and simple, Zenyatta had a better year than Curlin. Would Zenyatta had beaten Curlin if they had race against each other? No one knows, and it should not matter anyway. Shame she was not named Horse of the Year.