[BarkingToad]

Zenmaster is running in Del Mar's Clement Hirsch Grade 1 race. I hope she takes to the surface which she has had difficulty with before.

[gtkid911]

She should be able to handle it. The competition isnt too tough so easy 5% ROI for the place pool

[madmaxx]

Rachel crushed some of the horses in here...its going to be fun to see what Big Z does to them. I think Made for Magic is the horse who should run second and Rachel beat her by about 20 lengths. If Smith wants to, he could win with a Secretariat-like margin but only IF the track doesn't slow her down too much...which is a big IF as this track has been making good horses look veryyyyyy slow.

She was in that very tight race last year with Lethal Heat/Novice Creation but that field was much stronger than this. Free Money once again and I hope Shirreffs looks at the Pacific Classic.

[BarkingToad]

Perfect 18 for 18, simply the best!

[andywend]

Zenyatta isn't going to win the BC Classic with performances like the one she turned in yesterday.

She's been stretched pretty deep in her last 2 races and it looks like she is tailing off as compared to last year.

Bet $300 against her and got +680 on the field but came up a head short.

She'll need to run a whole lot faster if she is going to repeat and win the BC Classic again this year.

[BarkingToad]

Zenyatta isn't going to win the BC Classic with performances like the one she turned in yesterday.

She's been stretched pretty deep in her last 2 races and it looks like she is tailing off as compared to last year.

Bet $300 against her and got +680 on the field but came up a head short.

She'll need to run a whole lot faster if she is going to repeat and win the BC Classic again this year.

What you say is true, and she isn't exactly a kid now, Zenyatta will be close to 7 years old come BC race. However, the exact same argument could have been made after last year's race and we saw what happened. She does not like the Del Mar surface, as well as the 1 1/16 mile distance. She never would have won BC classic last year if the race was anything shorter than 1 1/4 miles.

I could care less if Andy Beyer gives her a 75 figure for Big Z's last race and the form shows she only won by a head. Zenmaster never wins by large amounts (except maybe on dirt) and once she got the lead Saturday in the early stretch, was never a threat to lose. Zenyatta has a couple of gears we've never seen yet, while poor ole Rinterval was straining her guts out. Lucky for her the race wasn't 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 miles. She might end up like Rachel after that last race and not run for 6 months.

It also didn't help the fractions were so lame 25.5 50.6, and 1:15. Gee Mike Smith, could you maybe keep Big Z a little closer to the pace rather than falling behind 8 lengths early on? Smith also seems to have a rule of thumb for the stretch turn, take the number of horses in front of you, add 2, and that's how wide he goes.

The Churchill surface will favor Big Z, and there won't be that slow of fractions, now if we can only get Joel Rosario to ride her the last 2 races of her career. Did you see how he rode Skipshot against Sydney's Candy, his closing horse against a front runner? More important, did Mike Smith see that and learn something?

[Art Vandeleigh]

What you say is true, and she isn't exactly a kid now, Zenyatta will be close to 7 years old come BC race. However, the exact same argument could have been made after last year's race and we saw what happened. She does not like the Del Mar surface, as well as the 1 1/16 mile distance. She never would have won BC classic last year if the race was anything shorter than 1 1/4 miles.

I could care less if Andy Beyer gives her a 75 figure for Big Z's last race and the form shows she only won by a head. Zenmaster never wins by large amounts (except maybe on dirt) and once she got the lead Saturday in the early stretch, was never a threat to lose. Zenyatta has a couple of gears we've never seen yet, while poor ole Rinterval was straining her guts out. Lucky for her the race wasn't 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 miles. She might end up like Rachel after that last race and not run for 6 months.

It also didn't help the fractions were so lame 25.5 50.6, and 1:15. Gee Mike Smith, could you maybe keep Big Z a little closer to the pace rather than falling behind 8 lengths early on? Smith also seems to have a rule of thumb for the stretch turn, take the number of horses in front of you, add 2, and that's how wide he goes.

The Churchill surface will favor Big Z, and there won't be that slow of fractions, now if we can only get Joel Rosario to ride her the last 2 races of her career. Did you see how he rode Skipshot against Sydney's Candy, his closing horse against a front runner? More important, did Mike Smith see that and learn something?

Entertaining read

[andywend]

Barking Toad,

It seems like she could run against $5K claimers and would still only win by a few lengths and then step up and run against the fastest males in the world and beat them by the same margin.

I agree with you about Michael Smith and his questionable rides on her time and time again. Even in 5 horse fields, he manages to take Zenyatta 10 wide (perhaps he knows he has the horse and doesn't want to take any chances of getting completely stopped on the inside).

I don't have much respect for these horses she keeps beating up on in California and they are NOT Grade I races even though they are classified as such.

Frankly, I was shocked that she won the BC Classic (while she went off at 5-2, it was only due to her huge following as she should have been 10-1 based on real handicapping).

The fact remains she's 18 for 18 and its not her fault that there aren't any quality fillies in California.

She sure is great for racing and the sport certainly needs a positive jolt.

[odtw524]

the Big Z is the best racehorse......should have been horse of the year!!!

[rake922]

how much you win?

[wtt0315]

she is awesome

[wtt0315]

i havent ever seen a horse do what she has done