Was Mike Smith riding Silky Sullivan or Zenyatta?

**wtt0315** · 11-07-10, 07:25 AM

silky sullivan was a great horse. fun to watch

jw · 11-07-10, 07:31 AM

Originally posted by BarkingToad

She is the best ever and only Man O War and Native Dancer should be in the same argument.

She is a long way from being the best ever ... I agree with big Mac ... Zenyatta was not even the best female horse at the track yesterday .. let alone the best filly of all time ...

**BarkingToad** · 11-07-10, 08:04 AM

Originally posted by jw

She is a long way from being the best ever ... I agree with big Mac ... Zenyatta was not even the best female horse at the track yesterday .. let alone the best filly of all time ...

Yeah, I go to a clown like big mac for all my horse racing info. Wasn't he the big mouth last year saying everyone was wasting their money on Zenyatta?

I assume you're talking about Goldikova. If she is that good why is she just a mile specialist? Why doesn't she run in the BC Classic or Arc de Triomphe?

**wtt0315** · 11-07-10, 08:08 AM

zen to me is one of the best in history and she is the female. I am so glad I got to watch her race these last couple years. I see the movie of secetariart and think how great it would be to watch him run in person and to know I got to watch big Z. She has done a lot for this sport. Lets not forget this is a sport that tracks are closing races and places are going belly up. She has brought so many fans to the sport and so many people that knew nothing of horse racing. My girlfriend knew nothing of racing, but she couldnt wait to ge home to watch her run so she could pull for the big girl. We wont have another like her for a while. Its not about winning races all the time.

**Brewers in 7** · 11-07-10, 08:37 AM

Zenyatta is probably the best ive seen in my years, im 32 now, so i wasnt around for Secretariat and the horses who came before him, she has to be considered one of the best fillies and mares of all time,if not the greatest, and Goldikova needs to be put in that class as well. She races against males almost all the time and shows up each and everytime. Zenyatta got beat less than a head yesterday by one of the deeper MALE classic fields in recent memory, she was well clear of the 3rd horse. The real shame of it all is Blame had a wonderful year, and if you ask the everyday non horseplayer who just watches the Breeders Cup they have no idea who Blame is, all they know is Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra, since thats all the media pumped out this year.. Even the coverage yesterday was 1 hour of Zenyatta coverage, which is great, but racing needs to showcase all of the stars, not just pick one or 2 every year and run with it..

**Dirty Sanchez** · 11-07-10, 09:32 AM

Even my dad asked "why is she so far back"...and I told him if you watched all of her races they all looked the same. Smith did nothing different then all her other races, the difference this time was he was chasing down a better class of horse, and if the race was another 50 yards she would of got there. I was impressed with her shipping East, changing surfaces, and the massive pressure she was under, and she still ran a hell of a race. It was just a weird feeling after she lost, as the crowd and winner almost felt like they just wanted to go home. Kind of felt bad for Zen as they walked her off like they were taking her to the meat market.

**zebra58** · 11-07-10, 10:10 AM

Originally posted by Dirty Sanchez

Even my dad asked "why is she so far back"...and I told him if you watched all of her races they all looked the same. Smith did nothing different then all her other races, the difference this time was he was chasing down a better class of horse, and if the race was another 50 yards she would of got there. I was impressed with her shipping East, changing surfaces, and the massive pressure she was under, and she still ran a hell of a race. It was just a weird feeling after she lost, as the crowd and winner almost felt like they just wanted to go home. Kind of felt bad for Zen as they walked her off like they were taking her to the meat market.

about sums it up great post ds, another jump or two & she gets the money, smith not at fault at all that's racing, she should & probably will win horse of the year

**dugbug15** · 11-07-10, 11:28 AM

from what i thought i saw zenyatta hesitated or misstepped out of the gate,spotting the field a few lengths from the getgo.

**APwins** · 11-07-10, 12:56 PM

Mike Smith is one of the worst big race riders ever. He admitted he blew the race, Jerry Bailey said he blew the race and I say he blew the race. 18 lenghts behind at the start is inexcusable, No horse can overcome that. Why anyone lets Smith race for millions of dollars is beyond me.

jw · 11-07-10, 01:28 PM

I would say - even in defeat - that yesterdays run was probably Zenyatta's best run this year - probably the best run of her life ... I agree about Mike Smith - never liked him - never will ....

**mikemca** · 11-07-10, 01:52 PM

How can you blame M Smith and not the connections.She was not familiar with the surface is why it took her a bit to get into stride.A prep race or even a few workouts over the surface might have worked wonders.

**ATP123** · 11-07-10, 02:01 PM

smith will be kicking himself but i dont see anything wrong with his ride, very similar to all of her other efforts, he got her into the holes and put full the big run but sooner or later it was going to catch up with her and it did, and this is really taking a lot away from Blame who has been superb this year, its not like mine that bird just beat zenyatta

**gtkid911** · 11-07-10, 02:35 PM

Totally agree with everyone saying Smith is at fault here. He should have left nothing on the track with Zenyatta. Biggest race probably in both of their lives and he left too much in the tank. He should of made a move earlier and let Zenyatta win by a comfortable margin but instead he wanted to shoestring the race.

**floridagolfer** · 11-07-10, 05:37 PM

She ran a great race and somehow got to the finish line a foot too late despite Mike Smith. I expected her to be 10 or 12 or maybe even 14 lengths back, but not 18 or 20.

**mikemca** · 11-07-10, 05:51 PM

**zebra58** · 11-08-10, 09:28 AM

**Thunder Gulch** · 11-08-10, 02:32 PM

Zenyatta ran the same fractions she always does, but Blame was the best horse she's ever tried to run down. I've never seen Churchill shake like it did when she made that amazing run at it late, but to give her extra credit for coming from so far back to finish second isn't a true assessment of how the race shaped up. What about giving Blame credit for running much quicker fractions to track some really fast horses who he put away before Zenyatta was in the picture, and then having the courage to level off and dig in the last 50 yards when it looked as if Zenyatta was going by?

Look folks, she is a great, classy race mare- one of the best mares I've seen in 30 years of watching this stuff- but as somebody stated above, she was the second best mare at the track yesterday. Starting to compare her to Secretariat, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed, Citation, Cigar...it's just not reality. You can say she may be as good as Blame, but nobody in doing so you must admit he isn't in the conversation with the immortals Most popular? Well that's an argument that could hold some water.

**unusialsusp5** · 11-08-10, 07:00 PM

buckpasser in the 60's would dust this ancient mare into the ground as he went by her.

**str** · 11-09-10, 08:33 AM

Zenyatta was as far back as she was because she had trouble dealing with the track. The head on of the first 1/8 of a mile clearly showed her bobbling badly about 12-14 strides out of the gate.Took her a while to become comfortable with the footing.It was not the jockey pulling her back. Might have seemed that way but it definitely was not .