Comments on: Rachel Alexandra wins Horse of the Year

By: bellesforever

bellesforever — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 18:02:22 +0000

well i thought that the bickering would be over after hoy was decided..guess i thought wrong! i do not think rachel will be racing anytime soon.i do think we will see the two greatest stars in racing race this year..oh be still my heart! i think it will be great for racing and i hope we can all sit back and watch realizing what an honor it is to be a racing fan right now!
i know i do not want to see either of the ladies lose but that is horse racing.. how does that diminish the loser?
please can we all stop taking potshots at the queens of racing?? there is no honor in that..no one can argue that one or the other woulda coulda mighthave in races that didn’t happen..what we can do is root and cheer for them both..did i hear anyone mention that there are some big prep races for a little race called the kentucky derby?

By: tvnewsbadge

tvnewsbadge — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 07:15:57 +0000

BMC Racing sez
“By the way, didn’t Rachel, almost get beat by Mine that Bird? One more jump and she’s 2nd place to a one-trick-pony! A horse that will never win another graded race as long as he lives.”

Also the only horse to take on the Triple Crown series and finish in the money in all three races, and as you noted, the only horse to take it to Rachel.

Any other horse would be celebrated for that, but Mine That Bird’s problem was that neither he nor his connections could overcome the class snobbery that prevails in so much of the horse racing community and equine media that dictates only rich “blue bloods” and their horses are worthy of respect.

Whenever I hear someone trash MTB, I’m always reminded of a play on that great line in the James Bond movie “Goldfinger” where Bond tells Goldfinger (regarding the villains star racehorse) “Well, he’s certainly better bred than his detractors”.

By: BMC Racing

BMC Racing — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 05:14:08 +0000

Pasturelands, you are definitely the rude one. Rachel Alexandra won by proxy. By the way, didn’t Rachel, almost get beat by Mine that Bird? One more jump and she’s 2nd place to a one-trick-pony! A horse that will never win another graded race as long as he lives. Rachel beat a low level class of 3YO’s and a bunch of mediocre older males in 2009. It all looked good on paper, but the quality just wasn’t there this year until the Breeders Cup. Zenyatta beat the best horses in the world on the biggest stage. That is a fact. Do you actually think Rachel could beat Gio Ponti? One of the greatest Turf Horses in North America this last decade, who was peaking into the Breeders Cup on Synthetics! Anyone who knows horseracing knew this. Gio Ponti was the biggest overlay in quite some time! But the Big Gal beat him…. Now the connections for Rachel are starting to make excuses to not run against Zenyatta, saying Rachel isn’t going to be ready for quite some time. Their simply afraid to race against her, just like they were back in November at the Breeders Cup Classic. In a neutral course at the “Classic” distance Rachel is going to get mowed down like every horse Zenyatta has finished off in her life. Rachel wouldn’t even finish second in such a race, because she will be too spent trying to hold off the big girl. Now, about the Moss’s. They didn’t buy a horse after he or she was proven like what Jackson did with the Curlin, and the filly Rachel. The Moss’s purchased Zenyatta as a yearling and nurtured her to her greatness. They didn’t buy an undefeated champion, they developed one and you should show them more respect instead of trash-talking these people who have put so much into horse racing. That is why this year Eclipse Award HOY was a farce. A total act of miss-justice that will only be corrected when they both meet and “Rachel the Pretender” gets beaten by the truest and most deserving HOY Champion, the great Zenyatta. Never will there ever be a horse like Zenyatta. Her soft demeanor, her showmanship in the paddock along with her tenacity down the stretch.

By: Kevin Stafford

Kevin Stafford — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 00:14:14 +0000

@tvnewsbadge – I put forth a similar comment over on TVG last night – referencing the idea that they may have to face multiple times to “settle” the issue – and it’s possible they could split decisions – leaving us right back where we are now.

By: tvnewsbadge

tvnewsbadge — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:30:56 +0000

Brenna said:

“I think if Rachel and Zenyatta meet it should be in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at CD this year in 2010. That way they’re going up against the best of the best, on a dirt track, and the distance of a mile and a quarter. That won’t only prove if Rachel or Zenyatta is better…. but who really is the BEST.”

By that logic, if another long shot horse beats both of them, is that horse “the best”?

One race will not prove anything, especially if Zenyatta can’t cut it on a dirt track or Rachel can’t do a mile and a quarter.

The only way to determine who is “best” is a series of races on various
surfaces at various distances…