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| Posted: Thursday, November 05, 2009 |
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The clubhouse leaders
The time is finally at hand. The Breeders’ Cup is a day away and, even though Fair Rachel is nowhere to be seen, excitement is starting to build as we await Zenyatta’s epic showdown with the boys in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Cyberspace is overflowing with selections at this point, and I’ll take a pass on that right now since I’ll be doing a day-long blog here at www.ntra.com on Friday and Saturday with a mythical $250 bankroll per day.
Instead, I’d like to set the stage for the Breeders’ Cup by taking at look at what I’ll call the clubhouse leaders: the Eclipse Award leaders heading into this weekend’s races.
Let’s start with the 2-year-olds.
2 year-old males
Looking at Lucky leads but the award will probably go to the BC Juvenile winner – unless it’s an unfathomable long shot - since he’ll own a victory over Looking at Lucky on LAL’s home track.
2-year-old fillies
Hot Dixie Chick is the one to catch. Blind Luck, Negligee and Devil May Care head those that could vault into contention by winning the BC Juvenile Fillies. Wonder if backlash over Jess Jackson’s Breeders’ Cup boycott will show up here.
Male Sprinter
Zensational, with three Grade 1 wins, leads and may have done enough to get the award, even if he stubs his toe in the Sprint. Gayego is main competition. If he wins the Sprint, he makes the decision tougher.
Female Sprinter
Ventura is No. 1 right now. Informed Decision is the main competition.
Male Turf
Done deal. It’s all Gio Ponti.
Female Turf
A very-wide open race. Forever Together, the defending champ, has a narrow lead. But if she loses in the BC Filly and Mare Turf, all bets are off. Diamondrella, with a win in the BC Turf Sprint, is a possibility and let’s see how Dar Re Mi fares in the BC Turf.
Older Male
The toughest call of all. There are a lot of possibilities that will be determined by the Breeders’ Cup races. Don’t focus solely on the handicap runners. They were as weak as Popeye without his spinach. Zensational and Gio Ponti are possibilities.
Older Female
Er, ahem, oh yeah, Zenyatta. Case closed.
3-year-old male
Summer Bird can pop the champagne. Win or lose in the BC Classic, his body of work is the best.
3-year-old female
Careless Jewel leads ... OK, just kidding. Step up and receive your Eclipse Award, Rachel Alexandra.
Horse of the Year
This could turn out to be a tighter than expected finish. Rachel is clearly on the lead, but if Zenyatta can win the BC Classic she’ll close the ground like Forego. There’s no comparison between the field Zenyatta is facing on Saturday and the older horses who chased Rachel Alexandra in the Woodward. Remember, that was Macho Again trying to catch her. If Zenyatta can pull it off, and that’s an if as tall as a skyscraper, she has to be viewed in a completely different light.
And what are your thoughts on the “clubhouse leaders?”
Good luck to everyone. Happy handicapping and, if you’re stuck indoors, hope to see you here Friday and Saturday.
A THANK YOU TO EVERYONE
Hope no one minds a quick personal note. I was a very humble recipient of a Breeders’ Cup writing award for this blog in a newly created category for what has been dubbed new media.
Jay Hovdey of Daily Racing Form and Jeff Lowe of Thoroughbred Times were the respective winners in the newspaper and magazine categories.
A national writing award and a Yankees World Series clincher on the same night is a pretty nifty daily double.
I’d like to thank everyone at the NTRA for their support, and I’d also like to send a shout out to the numerous regulars here at ntra.com. One thing this old newspaper scribe has learned about blogging is that it’s much easier and more enjoyable when you’re getting a steady stream of lively feedback. So thanks to all of you, even the Red Sox fans out there, for making this blog so much fun for me and playing a major role in the award.
User Comments
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19 total comments for "The clubhouse leaders"
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west coast disrespect (11/14/2009 4:15 PM)
zenyatta won more then 1 race.... she won 5 races this year! and yes life is sweet is a better filly then any filly rachel raced against! the mother goose, impressive? she beat 2 horses flashing and malibu something who got into an absolute throwdown of a speed duel.... oooh , wow, thats much more impressive then beating the the bc ladies champion 3 times on the year! handily 2! the oaks? ha! impressive , yes, but is there any doubt what zenyatta would have done to that field? the preakness, not that impressive, weak 3 yr olds, mine that bird almost caught her, can you imagine if that was zenyatta bearing down on her? how did mine that bird do against zenyatta? and um, common sense, mine that bird was a synthetic specialist as a 2 yr old.... yeah, google that moron! summer bird handled the synthetic just fine, was hardly struggling on it, just couldn't match zenyattas stride, the same way rachel wouldn't be able to match zenyattas stride! now on to zenyatta....1 race? she needs a fast pace? which race this year did she get a fast pace? i will help you out common sense, save you the google trip.... NONE.... she never got a 22/ 44 like rachel got in the goose... she closed into slow fractions all year, got there everytime, and gave up alot of weight while doing so... i think it was 128 or 129 in the vanity that she was carrying!!!the general rule is a pound a length, so you figure out what she would have won by.... so i understand some of you new horse racing fans, don't know much besides the triple crown series and the east coast grade ones (common sense), but zenyatta won more then one race this year! and impressively 2!!!! just because you didn't follow her , doesn't mean she didn't do it!!!!! and what happened to all the guaranteed she wouldn't hit the board int he classic talk?????? o yeah, that came from beyer numbers, ha, an east coast guy who favors east coast horses! the sooner you get those beyers out of your handicapping the better off you will be!!!! i black them out when i get my form, they will just lead you in the wrong direction! horse of the year is zenyattas! east coast bias may give it to rachel, but, guess what, on the track zenyatta won it capping it off with BREEDERS CUP CLASSIC WIN, THE END!!!!!!!
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Pasturelands (11/11/2009 2:27 AM)
Westcoast disrespect, (yeah, your name alone sounds bitter, what more can I say?)
I may be bitter, but I am something you will never be: I am SOBER. I dont rave like a LUNATIC over ONE race, even if it is the BC.
Can you count? What is it about ONE that you dont understand?
Zenyatta raced ONE race-- not two, or three, just ONE-- me, myself, and I-- just ONE single uno. She won this ONE lone race and you award her the Horse of the Year for that?? What if she's been lolling around in the barn all year before this ONE race, is she still DESERVING of an award?
Rachel HAS BEEN doing what Zen has done in the BC, THREE times already. Three is GREATER THAN one, correct? One multiplied by Three is THREE, get it? Still not understand?
Unlike Zenyatta the Invincible Champion horse of ONE race, RACHEL ALEXANDRA has been busting her ass racing ALL OVER NORTH AMERICA for the last 11 months. She won races in 5 different states, 7 racetracks, and in all kinds of weather -- rain, storm, heat, etc. She won against anything on four legs that could run -- fillies, colts, stallions, etc. She had ENORMOUS STAMINA AND SPEED, enduring a punishing campaign of back-to-back races against MALES, and females. She has the record for the HIGHEST BEYER SPEED FIGURE IN NORTH AMERICA -- 116.
I'll say it again, BSF matters. Zen's highest BSF is ONLY 112.
And NOBODY IS GONNA APOLOGIZE to Zen for anything. We are entitled to our OWN opinion, regardless of whether it is favorable to YOU or NOT.
So just BE A MAN, and CALL A SPADE A SPADE-- Zenyatta won ONE race, so she gets to be champion.. Rachel Alexandra won THREE races against ALL KINDS OF MALES, so she deserves HORSE OF THE YEAR. End of discussion.
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Marcus from Seattle (11/10/2009 4:51 PM)
West Coast: We have agreed on few things and I'll again admit I was very wrong on Zenyatta. VERY wrong. But do not confuse admission of a mistake on my part as a check made out to you, to subsequently go berserk. Horse of the Year has one meaning and one meaning only: Who was the best horse THIS year? It's not a career achievement. It's 2009's best horse. Did Zenyatta leave me speechless? Yes. But alas, it was one race. Rachel has done more over the course of the year. She just has. Pull out the Form and look at it. She beat fillies by 20 and 19 lengths. She beat males in three races, all grade ones. She just did more West Coast. That's no disrespect to Zenyatta but one race isn't a year long achievement, IMHO.
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D Tiernan (11/10/2009 2:15 PM)
THE BC is known as the World Championships.
The Super Bowl as well.
If a football team went undefeated during the regular season, and made it to the Super Bowl, but decided to sit out because they didnt like the field they were playing on, they couldn't be called "CHAMPIONS", could they?
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ThePrestigeHU (11/10/2009 10:56 AM)
Eileen: as someone who was actually at Saratoga the day of her Woodward win, and I got to watch everyone of her previous races, about 3 times each on the television screens, I can assure you those fractions were not blazing. Compared to every other race she has ever won, they were exactly the same. Nothing scorching or suicidal about them. Her win was impressive, but let’s stop pretending like the fractions were something she’d never seen before.
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