Final voting:
Rachel: 130 votes
Zenyatta: 99 votes
Rachel: 130 votes
Zenyatta: 99 votes
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I though Zenyatta should of won but very close voteComment -
Well deserved. Zenyatta only ran 5 times this year.Comment -
I guess people were impressed with Rachel's 1 length Preakness win over a hard charging Mine that Bird. I thought everyone was saying how this is the worst crop of 3 year olds in a long time earlier in the year, and that was when Quality Road was healthy.
Since when did the Breeders Cup Classic become an insignificant race like an allowance race at Philadelphia Park? I guess when Rachel A's boyfriend stunk it up in '08 when he was tailing off.Comment -
from : http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/hor...ory?id=4837854
All three voting blocs went for Rachel Alexandra. The National Turf Writers Association preferred Rachel Alexandra by 71 votes to 51. Daily Racing Form went for Rachel Alexandra by a 31-23 margin. And the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, which includes racing secretaries and members of Equibase, had Rachel Alexandra by 28-25.Comment -
not even close voting wise.Comment -
R.A was very impressive this year..Not my choice thoughComment -
Voting was accurate, Zen wants to stay out west deserves secondComment -
Sea the Stars would have beaten anything you have stateside, "medication" or no medication. That is/was a horse in a generation.Comment -
No disrespect to Rachel, Zenyatta is just a phenomenal race horse and deserved to win the honor. She wins races with such ease. I don't care about the surface, she'll win anywhere.Comment -
Zenyatta could have won the Breeders Cup Classic by 25 lengths and Rachel still would have won Horse of the Year due to the extreme bias of the East Coast voters.Can anyone tell me where I can find out who the voters are and where they are from?
In answer to your question, I would bet that the vast majority of votes that Rachel received were from voters on the East Coast.
While I"m sure the West Coast voters were biased in favor of Zenyatta, the bias is nowhere near as strong as in the East.
Since there are more voters on the East Coast than the West Coast, any close horse of the year vote will go to the east coast horse.
I'm going to take a wild guess and say Alastair Jervis is not a U.S. citizen, LOL. Just another example of obvious bias rearing its ugly head.Sea the Stars would have beaten anything you have stateside, "medication" or no medication. That is/was a horse in a generationComment -
RA beat males three times last year, didn't she? Zenyatta once. I'm sure that played into it.Comment -
You are right, I am not an American but I don´t think it is overly biased.
Sea the Stars is the best European horse of the last 25 years and has just been sold to stud for more than twice the value of any other horse in history. Unbeaten in 6 group 1 races.
Despite the obvious disadvantages, Euro horses more than hold their own when flying over for the Breeder´s Cup.Comment -
ya i totally agree with you if sea the stars came to the breeders cup, he would of won the classic. he's one for the ages.Comment -
i am sure the horse is very happy and all the loser horses are sadComment -
horce faceComment -
Sea the Stars = Best Ever
IMHO
Blistering speed when needed and as tough as nails. His style of running, though meant that he would never get the ratings of some others from the past. The win in the Arc was simply awesome, destroyed the field in eight or nine strides when let off the bridle.
Correct AndyWend, I am not from the US either.
Comparing RachelAlexandre and Zenyatta is tough, but I would just give the edge to Zenyatta.Comment -
this was an entertaining year for horses with meComment -
Sea the Stars was big time.
That was a tremendous horse and may have beaten anything the Americans could have put forth.
Unfortunately, we'll never know for sure; too bad they retired him.Comment -
Sean the Stars was a studComment -
Rachel should have wonComment -
With all due respect to Sea the Stars record, and I will also make a disclaimer the only time I saw him race was in Dunder's video, there's a few points to be made after looking at the breeders cup past performance issue. Rip Van Winkle raced Sea of Stars 3 straight times and Rip got closer each time, losing by 2 1/2 lengths, 2 lengths, then 1 length. What did Zenyatta do to RVW in the BC Classic?
Sea of Stars also got a big weight advantage in some of those races. In the Eclipse Stakes, Sea of stars carried 122 lbs vs 133 lbs for Conduit. In the L'arc de Triomphe Sea of Stars carried 123 lbs while Youmzain and Conduit carried 131 lbs each. They both lost by 2 lengths. Sea of Stars carries between 8-11 pounds LESS weight.
My rule of thumb for weight is 1 lb is worth 1/4 length for each mile you run, so 8lbs x 1.5 miles x 1/4 length = 3 lengths. Enough for Youmzain and Conduit to pass Sea of Stars. If Conduit had to carry the same weight in Breeders Cup, do you think he would've caught Presious Passion?
I'm just trying to compare apple to apples. To be honest, I thought Daylami, the awesome big grey, consistently showed a better closing punch. Daylami was amazing and one of a kind. With all these excellent horses we talk about, only one showed up to the "Super Bowl". If Brett favre wins today, can he just be crowned super bowl champ if he decides he doesn't want to go to Miami in 2 weeks?Comment -
i think its a good pick if it doesnt go to julia robertsComment -
There is one major factor which your analysis misses and that is that all of the O´Brien horses which came to the Breeder´s Cup this year (including Rip Van Winkle and Fame and Glory) ran without medication and, by consensus, well below form as a result.
Sea the Stars style of running meant that he never won races by more than a couple of lengths and he tended to idle when in the lead. The weight advantage you mention is the weight-for-age allowance which is standard in Europe (STS was a 3-y-o)
In all truth, Sea the Stars, was most likely over the top for the season by the time of the Arc and would not have been in the best of shape had he been sent for the BC, having not been trained with that race in mind and Zenyatta´s performance was hugely impressive.
It is not reasonable (IMHO) to compare the call the BC Classic with the Superbowl, some would say that the Dubai World Cup is now the premiere event, whilst others (including myself) would maintain that there is home field advantage involved.
It would be fantastic for the sport had he stayed in training, but one can understand the owner wanting to cash in on the USD 160m for sending him to stud. Ultimately the relative merits of two racehorses can be debated until the cows come home, best just to agree that they are two great horses and agree to disagree which of the two was the greatest
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Zenyatta has a similar running style too, only runs as fast as she needs to. Her biggest margin of win was on dirt. Like you say, too bad Zenyatta, Sea of Stars, and Rachel don't run in the Dubai race in March. I agree that would be the ultimate Super Bowl.
Well, if you throw Big Brown in the mix, maybe they can all produce kids amongst themselves when all are done racing.Comment -
East Coast bias..if Rachel actually came to the BC and won it wouldn't have been an issue but Zenyatta certainly deserved it.Comment -
What good male(s) did rachel beat that Zenyatta didn't demolish, the 2 birds? Rachel barely beat Macho Again by a head and a length and a half against Bullsbay. Macho Again had 2 wins in 8 tries in '09 while Bullsbay won 3 of 9, and did nothing in the Breeders cup undercard. Rachel chose to race against the weaker older males in the Woodward instead of the 3 year olds in the Travers.
You wouldn't happen to be from the east coast, would ya, Floridagolfer?Comment
