what do you think shireffs is thinking now?

[CHOWDERMAN]

why send zenyatta to run a race a mile and a quarter on dirt againt your main rival in a grade 1 race...could you imagine what zenyatta would have done today...worst handling of a top horse...ever...woody stephens is spinning somewhere...what\'s z going for next...the belt parkway handicap...

[smalltimer]

I believe she\'ll be going for 19 in a row.

[plasticman]

He\'s thinking \"Man i\'m SO glad i didnt race in the Pacific Classic, i wouldnt  have wanted to face that superstar Richards Kid\"

[jimbo66]

Smalltimer,

Yes 19 in a row.  At least 15 of them against nobody or slightly better than nobody.

Agree with Chowderman completely in that Shirreffs has put her in the position where if she doesn\'t run well in the BC Classic, there becomes a huge asterisk next to her synthetic/California-based/redundant campaigns.  Whereas if he actually raced her once in a while in a competitive race, the view would be completely different.

[MonmouthGuy]

Connection of Pepper\'s Pride must be nervous.

[smalltimer]

Jimbo,
Z will give a good account of herself in the Classic, I seriously doubt she\'ll be wobbling home in 27 seconds.
Z will go down as one of the greatest females of all time, period.  Public opinion exists outside this TG forum.
Have a good one.

[smalltimer]

Maybe they\'ll un-retire her and take on Rachel now?

[Rick B.]

smalltimer Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I seriously doubt [Zenyatta will] be wobbling home
> in 27 seconds.

Correct. Zenyatta gets her incredibly slow quarters out of the way early in the race.

She depends on everyone else to do the dirty work up front and kill all the speed -- the perfect racing style for counterfeit racing surfaces.

[P-Dub]

Rick B. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> smalltimer Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > I seriously doubt  be wobbling home
> > in 27 seconds.
>
> Correct. Zenyatta gets her incredibly slow
> quarters out of the way early in the race.
>
> She depends on everyone else to do the dirty work
> up front and kill all the speed -- the perfect
> racing style for counterfeit racing surfaces.


Or ANY closer on ANY surface.

Uh Rick, thats what closers do, they get faster later in the race.

Its what makes them \"closers\".

On any surface.

[TGJB]

1-- Closers seldom run faster the last quarter than the first. Generally they run evenly as the others decelerate.

2-- Rick\'s point (correct or not) was that certain surfaces were more conducive to one running style than another.

[Rich Curtis]

TGJB wrote:

 \"Rick\'s point (correct or not) was that certain surfaces were more conducive to one running style than another.\"

  I thought his point was that Zenyatta has depended on invisible horses doing all this invisible work early in her races and thus invisibly killing each other off, thus allowing Zenyatta to get lucky and lucky and lucky and win and win and win, quite visibly at that.

[smalltimer]

You really think you can get lucky 18 times with multiple Grade 1\'s and 2 BC Championships?  
Exactly where in my post did I suggest Zenyatta has depended on invisible horses  doing the work?
She\'s won in every style imaginable regardless of fast pace, slow pace, no pace.
She\'s 6 years old and still a horse to contend with.

[Rich Curtis]

JB and I are talking about Rick B\'s post, not yours.

[Rick B.]

Rich Curtis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I thought his point was that Zenyatta has
> depended on invisible horses doing all this
> invisible work early in her races and thus
> invisibly killing each other off, thus allowing
> Zenyatta to get lucky and lucky and lucky and win
> and win and win, quite visibly at that.

Riiiight.

There have never been any pace battles in any of Zenyatta\'s races.

Zenyatta, unlike every other closer in the history of horse racing, has never, EVER benefitted from front-runners going out and banging heads; she simply does ALL of the work, every time, all by herself, thus invalidating 50 or more years of study of pace, energy distribution, race shapes -- all of that stuff is clearly bullshit.

My bad.

[Rich Curtis]

Rick B wrote:

\"Zenyatta, unlike every other closer in the history of horse racing, has never, EVER benefitted from front-runners going out and banging heads; she simply does ALL of the work, every time, all by herself, thus invalidating 50 or more years of study of pace, energy distribution, race shapes -- all of that stuff is clearly bullshit\"

Re-writing your first post in this string so that Zenyatta had to benefit from only one fast pace in her career for you to be right? Good idea, Rick. Indeed, anything that gets you away from your first post in this string is a good idea.