such a sad sad day

[Flighted Iron]

Hollywood Park | Posted 11/30/2009, 4:06 pm
 
Crowd shows Zenyatta some love
By Steve Andersen
 
Benoit & Associates
A crowd of 9,814 at Hollywood on Sunday said goodbye to Zenyatta, being ridden here by Steve Willard.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. - Zenyatta, the most popular horse in California, was sent into retirement on Sunday at Hollywood Park with a ceremony that featured the one thing her adoring fans wanted more than anything else - an appearance by the 5-year-old undefeated mare herself.

The ceremony, held between the seventh and eighth races on a program highlighted by the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby, included comments from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose speech was largely drowned out by boos from the ontrack crowd of 9,814; owners Jerry and Ann Moss; and jockey Mike Smith. The event was hosted by TVG commentator Ken Rudulph.

Moss, during brief comments, praised Zenyatta and trainer John Shirreffs. Shirreffs guided her through her 14-race campaign highlighted by an historic win in the Breeders\' Cup Classic at Santa Anita on Nov. 7.

\"I can\'t say enough about her trainer,\" Moss said. \"We\'re humbled by the event and our association with this great racehorse.\"

Moss and his wife received a warm ovation when they walked out of a tunnel toward the winner\'s circle. During a brief comment, Ann Moss said that Zenyatta \"made the impossible possible. Thank you, thank you 14 times.\"

The adoring crowd was gathered five or six deep around the expansive winner\'s circle. The box seat area, which is often deserted on racedays, was full for a change. The crowd was a gain of 12 percent over the corresponding day in 2008.

While the crowd responded warmly to the people behind Zenyatta, they saved their loudest cheers for the mare. When a replay of the Breeders\' Cup Classic was shown, the crowd reacted so enthusiastically that the stretch run commentary was drowned out.

A few moments later, Zenyatta herself, ridden by regular exercise rider Steve Willard, jogged down the stretch past most of the crowd and back toward the winner\'s circle where Smith climbed aboard once more to end the ceremony.

Zenyatta will remain at Shirreffs\'s barn at Hollywood Park in coming weeks. There is even talk of another retirement ceremony at Santa Anita later this month. When she does leave to be a broodmare in Kentucky, her absence will leave a void in California racing and in the Shirreffs team. Her final days at the barn have become especially poignant.

\"She always lifted the barn into a good mood,\" said Michelle Jensen, Shirreffs\'s assistant. \"We were part of her family and she was part of our family.\"

I haven\'t heard anything so pathetic in my life! Isn\'t she sound as a dollar?
I suppose their attitude is \"there\'s nothing left to prove\".Well,this is horse
RACING.The life of horseracing always needs our stars to continue racing and
never moreso than in our current situation.How about the fans?Do the Shireffs and
the Moss\'s of our world really give a hang about them?This kind of sappy ass
bull@#$% story makes me want to puke!!

chapped,
mjs

[HP]

Oh get over it.  

I think it\'s great.  Bravo!  I don\'t see how you begrudge them their moment.  How many horses of this caliber come back to race at six?  It would be one thing if EVERYBODY pushed their horses to run more...but NOBODY does.  Why are you singling these guys out?  

Please don\'t revisit the whole Z v. Rachel thing, there is nothing on this that hasn\'t been said already.  Enough.  Plus the part about the Governator being drowned out by boos is pretty funny.  

I have to go back to following the Tiger Woods updates now...

HP

[Flighted Iron]

I think it\'s great. Bravo! I don\'t see how you begrudge them their moment. How many horses of this caliber come back to race at six? It would be one thing if EVERYBODY pushed their horses to run more...but NOBODY does. Why are you singling these guys out?

Please don\'t revisit the whole Z v. Rachel thing, there is nothing on this that hasn\'t been said already. Enough. Plus the part about the Governator being drowned out by boos is pretty funny.

1.I never mentioned Rachel.This isn\'t about R vs. Z
2.Horses of this caliber who are sound and not coming back to race is my point.
3.The follow-up article about Cali racing in the crapper makes me wonder why
one of racings stars is retired especially whens she\'s based in Cali.
4.Their moment??It\'s not about them.Along with everyone else,they had 14 moments.
The worst moment came when they decided to put a period on the moments.
5.I suppose it\'s easy to say \"well,really how may new fans would Z have generated
had she ran another year\"?That seems to be the surrounding mentality and we wonder
why our sport is taking a #@&!.
6.The Moss\'s risk is minimal and the chances are there\'s everything to gain for
the sport.
7.It\'s cool though.While Mr and Mrs Moss lounge and sip,joe blo just lost his
racetrack job and is in the welfare line.

[HP]

2. Horses of this caliber who are sound and not coming back to race is my point.

This is news to you?  You\'re kidding right?  How many top flight horses have you seen race past their FOUR year old campaign?  Again, why single Z\'s owners out when everyone is doing this?  

3. The follow-up article about Cali racing in the crapper makes me wonder why
one of racings stars is retired especially whens she\'s based in Cali.

Z raced in Cali all year.  Cali racing is in the crapper WITH her running, and now it will be in the crapper WITHOUT her running.  The state of Cali racing is going to be affected by this exactly the same in 2010 and it was in 2009...not one bit.  

4. Their moment?? It\'s not about them. Along with everyone else,they had 14 moments. The worst moment came when they decided to put a period on the moments.

\"Their moment\" refers to the owners and the fans, collectively showing the horse some respect.  Seems like most of them enjoyed it.  

Overall...you are hanging an awful lot on Z being retired from racing.  Joe Blo is not losing his job over THIS.  Also, what do you know about the \"Moss\' risk?\"  Ordinarily an intelligent person would give a little credit to people closest to the horse to know what\'s best.  Maybe there are other issues you don\'t know about.  

There are about 100 things they could do to improve racing in Cali.  Z coming back is not going to solve anything out there.  If it makes you feel good to rip Moss and the rest of them go ahead.  

HP

[Flighted Iron]

No it\'s not news.That\'s the joke of it all and you get defensive for people who
have an opportunity to dare to be different.Please spare me the \"ordinarily intelligent passive-aggressive crap.

For the interest of horseracing we have decided to campaign Zenyatta for another
year provided she maintains optimum health.I would imagine a headline like this
would be even more enjoyable to your teary-eyed gathering at Cali.

As far as hanging much on whomever.Like it or not our leaders in politics,industry,sports,etc... have the responsibility to do their utmost for
the greater good.

I\'m sure we can go back and forth.Believe it or not,it\'s not an attack on the
Moss\'s.Despite they\'re wealth they\'re just as unoriginal as most.

[P-Dub]

Funny how everyone wants to slobber all over Jess Jackson, the guy who retired Curlin after his 4YO campaign. I\'m sure he was sipping plenty of wine after that decision too.

HP pretty much said it all. Why you want to single out these people, when plenty of others have done the same thing, only you know.

Hollywood Park has a day in her honor, the fans obviously enjoyed it, yet that is just a terrible thing for you.

When you can criticize your idol Jackson and the many others that have retired champions after their 3 and 4yo seasons, then maybe you would be worth listening to.

The hating continues.............how surprising.

[HP]

\"Like it or not our leaders in politics, industry, sports, etc... have the responsibility to do their utmost for the greater good.\"

This may be true - but it\'s the OWNERS\' decision.  Mr. and Mrs. Moss.  The only people that could make your magic headline happen would be the OWNERS.  Mr. and Mrs. Moss don\'t make the policies or the decisions that are affecting the lives of horseplayers on a daily basis.  They OWN A HORSE, and you wrote a long post villfying THEIR DECISION to retire the horse.  

HP

[Flighted Iron]

For one I rarely slobber.Secondly he probably should have campaigned
Curlin the following year,but I\'m talking about the here and now.Imo positive change from high profile situations brings large scale beneficial effects.Thirdly it\'s not hate.It\'s wonderment.Heck,even Mike Smith said he never got to the bottom
of her.

[Flighted Iron]

Last time I checked Z was a leader in our industry.Her mere presence made grown
men swoon.Yeah,her running another year would have no beneficial effect in
horseracing.Now she\'s just history in a sport that could be on its way to history.

[smalltimer]

At the end of the day, its all about Rachel and Z.  If its all for the greater good as you say, where was Rachel on Breeder\'s Cup day?  Isn\'t that really the matchup that everyone wanted?  Instead, Rachel\'s connections chose to do what they felt was BEST for their superstar.  
What odds are you laying that Rachel will be running as a 5 year old, much less a 6 year old?
Undefeated in 14 starts, about $8M in earnings, winner of 2 different Breeder\'s Cup races.  Z deserves to retire. (I would have loved to see her have one or two more outs).  
Next year, hopefully Rachel stays healthy and she gets ALL the attention without having to share it with Z.  
There will always be two different camps regarding these 2 spectacular females.  Those who think Rachel would have won, and those (including me) who thinks Zenyatta would have won.  We\'ll never know, and that\'s okay.  40 years later people are still arguing if Ali could have beaten Marciano.  
I think history will show that Rachel had her chance to run against Zenyatta and her connections chose not to try out the big mare.  
Hall of Famer Gary Stevens, on You Tube regarding a race with Rachel, Winning Colors, Serena\'s Song and Zenyatta going 9 furlongs at Churchill Downs on the dirt.  Steven\'s says, \"Zenyatta wins for fun.\"  Stevens rode enough good ones to have an opinion I respect.
Zenyatta doesn\'t owe the fans or the sport anything.  She came, she saw, she conquered every animal in every race.  She took the ultimate test against males going a distance she\'d never ran and won easily.  She\'s a champion.  History will view her as such.
Have a great one.

[Easy Goer]

... after I voted for Zenyatta on the DRF \"Great Debate\" web page and saw the results. After reading so many moronic comments throughtout the year on this board, public opinion speaks volumes. Shirreffs assault on the 2 BC Classics this year (Friday & Saturday) was simply BRILLIANT. And so was the winner of America\'s definitive championship race. While I am not sure that the \'experts\' will get it right, I do know that DRF fans did...


Vote for who you think should be the 2009 Horse of the Year [6653 votes total]

 
Rachel Alexandra (2313)    35%
 
Zenyatta (4340)    65%

[Funny Cide]

I\'ll take your side, Flighted.  I\'m not understanding why people are coming down on you.  Regardless of her age, Zenyatta is a very lightly-raced mare.  She\'s 5, and run only 14 times, which averages out to 3.5 races per year.  There have been 2yos who\'ve raced more than she has.

There\'s no indication that she\'s unsound or has any physical issues, so why not bring her back?  As Flighted points out, this isn\'t about others, this is about the here and now, this mare, who\'s lightly-raced and sound, who\'s a superstar, and who could possibly give us a show down between her and Rachel if she stayed in training.

It\'s not beating up the Mosses (who seem like nice people) to point out that this mare doesn\'t have to retire.  

If they said they just can\'t bear to risk her on the track anymore,  ok.  It\'s their horse, but racing\'s a risk, and just like that risk to run in the Classic, you\'ve got to risk to get the rewards.  This mare will go down as a great mare, but she could go down as even greater, maybe the greatest, but you\'ve got to give them the chance to do it.

As for the person who brought up Curlin, he was tailing off.  You can\'t blame someone, particularly with a stallion prospect, for retiring when they\'re risking a significant blow to the horse\'s reputation if he stays in racing.  Once a horse has reached that point, you can\'t blame the owner for retiring.  No one wants to see a former champ on a downhill course.

[Flighted Iron]

Rachel was never mentioned because it\'s not about her and a potential match.It\'s
about the potential lost by not having Z on the racetrack.Funny Cide made a fantastic point about her racing very lightly.Once again,imo I think it would
have been beneficial for RACING on a whole to have her back next year.

I do agree with one thing you said. She\'s history.

[Flighted Iron]

Even more of a reason to bring her back next season.Obviously more of a favorite
in the everyday racegoers eyes.But hey,who gives a rats ass about the person
pumping the money through the turnstiles and the windows?

[magicnight]

This is a great post, FC! You really nail it. Her retirement comes down to three things:

1) The Mosses just don\'t want to take the slightest of risks on her anymore. She\'s done everything they\'ve asked, and more. They love the hell out of her, and don\'t think she has anything left to prove. If anything bad happened to her, they\'d never be able to live with themselves. If this is THE reason why she\'s being retired, I\'m with you 100%. She\'s their horse, and it\'s their call.

2) One foal. That\'s really what we are talking about when it comes to breeding, yes? If we are lucky, she\'ll drop ten. If unlucky, she\'s a glorious one-off. The breeding implication is the difference between nine and ten foals, and I\'d think the Mosses could be OK with that.

3) Convention. When was the last time a really great horse or mare raced as a 6YO? I have no idea what the answer is, but, within the last 50 years I\'d guess it\'s in the very low single digits (as HP implied).

So, if #1 is the overarching reason for her retirement, I\'m fine with that (though I could understand someone quibbling with the \"nothing left to prove\" part, given the filly two years her junior).

If #2 is the main reason, that\'s really lame. See Genuine Risk, Winning Colors, Bayakoa, etc.

Number 3, of course, would be way beyond lame. I mean, convention? WTF? These are not conventional times. Three of the greatest fillies to have ever gladly stepped into a starting gate are still in training ... this is a goddamn magical time! Convention should be tossed away with yesterday\'s straw.

Yes, she would be a 6YO taking another lap around the park for the privilege of facing an Amazonian queen at (presumably) the height of her powers, but there is no guarantee we will see the same Rachel next year, is there?

Here\'s what I say. Have both camps commit to three races. The Met Mile in May. The Vanity in July. And the Classic. If Z\'s camp wants more distance you could go Vanity, Woodward, Classic instead. Whatever. If there is any chance of this happening it should be insisted upon. Unless, of course, it\'s door number one. In which case, this is just more noise, and happy years on the farm, sweet Z!

Last thing. From what I\'ve seen, the only one who enjoys this stuff more than we do is Zenyatta. She might miss us even more than we all will miss her.