Zenyatta, also known as The Queen, has a now-classic style. She doesn't go wire to wire. That's boring. She likes to start slow. Dead last, actually. She cruises along, admiring the scenery, not working terribly hard, while the rest of the field seemingly runs away with the race. Then, at some point in the backstretch, jockey Mike Smith puts her in gear -- a gear that no other horse possesses. Once that overdrive kicks in, the race is over. She did it last year in the Breeder's Cup Classic at Santa Anita for her 14th win
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She demoralized the field this year at the Clement Hirsch Stakes for win #18
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Then this past weekend at Hollywood Park she did it again at the Ladies Secret
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Zenyatta knows she's the best. She's famous for showing off, prancing in front of the crowd. The Queen (yep, she's named after the Police's "Zenyatta Mondatta") would relate to Hall of Famer Larry Bird, who walked into the locker room during 1986 All Star Weekend before the 3-point shooting contest and announced that since he was going to win, "I'm just lookin' around to see who's gonna finish up second." Of course Bird won the contest. That's Zenyatta. She knows she's all that. She knows she has that top gear, that when she wants, she can blow everyone else away -- and will.
You have one last chance to see Zenyatta in action. On Saturday November 6, she's going to run in her 20th and last race in the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in Louisville. After that, she'll retire as perhaps the greatest filly of all time. If you never saw Secretariat, Man o' War, or Citation, you owe it to yourself to sit down and watch the last race of Queen Z, the best horse in decades.
Photo credit: Team Zenyatta after the 2010 Clement Hirsch, Charles Pravata
1 comments:
TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
I have founded the Texas Horseracing Hall of Fame & Museum and I am the Co-founder/Director of the New Mexico Horseracing Hall of Fame & Museum, was raised on HORSES and used to ride in Matchraces, before I got too big and I consider myself an authority on HORSERACING, where the HORSES themselves are concerned.......Zenyatta reminds me of what I consider to be the greatest Quarterhorse Racehorse in History......Her name is Shuefly and she ran in sanctioned Horseraces in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona, back in the 1940's.......She held the World's Record for a Quarter-mile (440 yards) for 20 years or so and she ran it in .22 flat......Once, in Tucson, Arizona, she fell to her knees, coming out of the gates, in a race which included Barbra B., Stella Moore and My Texas Dandy, and she got up and won the Race by a nose, equalling her World's Record of .22 flat, for the 1/4 mile.......To my knowledge, Shuefly never outran her opponents by daylight, all of her Races were close......She only ran as fast as she had to, to win.......That's what Zenyatta does and that's why some of her times are not very good, but, if you will take a look at her times, in the last 1/4 mile, her last 1/8 mile, her last 1/16 mile and sometimes, the last 50 yards, you will readily see how much faster she is than all the other HORSES in the race, when she decides it's time to get another gear and move out.......
There are some, who just simply do not want to admit how good she is at what she does and how fast she really is, but, she has never lost a Race, yet, and if she wins the Breeders' Cup Classic, again, hopefully, it will shut the door on the debate on who and what she is, in the annals of Racing.......Thanks for reading and enjoy what you can of Zenyatta, for you will surely never see another RACEHORSE with her brains, athletic ability and speed, again, in your lifetime.............Mickey Burleson
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