Well, I wish someone would do Rachel\'s list. I\'d like to see it. List all the Grade I winners she defeated, the races they won. And I can\'t see how that\'s not relevant - how is who they beat not important? As far as the synthetic factor, frankly, that\'s not relevant because, unfortunately, that\'s where the race was held, and how in the world could any of us figure out to the smallest detail who is a synthetic specialist, who\'s not, etc. and factor that analysis into the HOY decision. We\'re getting into really muddy waters there.
Again, what about the possibility that Zen would have been better on dirt? Still, no one addresses that thesis which I firmly believe is true. If you want to speculate, then that\'s my speculation. Look at her one race on dirt and compare her action to the way she travels on synthetic - she was more comfortable on dirt and ran a faster number, right?
The biggest knock on Z getting HOY would be simply that she never left So. Cal - horse of the year should in my mind travel and perform at different tracks - that\'s my biggest knock. She only ran like 5 times right, too - that\'s a little knock too because I feel like HOY should take on all comers and race many times. Regarding Rachel my biggest knock is simply that she never beat a really quality field, and she never won at a mile and 1/4, the classic distance, and her campaign ended around Labor Day and that\'s way too early to call it quits. In this day and age you need to win the BC classic to really be a legit HOY. How many HOY did not win the BC Classic in recent memory - I have no idea, but it\'s probably not too many. Rachel wins hands down on numbers, right? Maybe you could post their sheets and we could compare them.
Honestly, if I\'m being objective and not emotional, I have no strong opinion. I think as I pointed out you could make a case and some knocks on both of them. I can\'t say with certainly I know I\'m right b/c I don\'t, really. Rachel\'s best race was the Haskell, right or was it the Oaks? Either case she beat one quality animal in the Haskell, and I\'m not sure of any in the Oaks. I don\'t see Mine That Bird as a really quality animal, though Rachel winning the Preakness is still huge - but had the derby been run on any other day or conditions he might have been in a 50K claiming race on Saturday somewhere else. Macho Again or Bullsbay, are they really top class horses? Z\'s only strong point is the BC classic but if you don\'t think that was a good race then you\'d have to say she doesn\'t deserve HOY.
