By Harry King
LITTLE ROCK — The quiet celebration was a first — enthusiasm for a thoroughbred race result and nary a dollar at stake.
A friend called with the news when Little Rock was still more than an hour away on Interstate 40. A watcher of thousands of races, he said Zenyatta looked like she had no chance in the Breeders’ Cup Classic and won anyway.
Sometimes, exaggeration infects the description of a happening in sports. Not this time. If anything, he undersold the drama of the final quarter mile when she passed eight males, the stress of loading into the gate twice and an awkward start.
Bloated with 14 races spread out over two days, heavy on horses with an affinity for Santa Anita’s artificial surface, and lacking a 2-year-old with solid Oaklawn Park connections, the Breeders’ Cup did not get as much attention as in years past.
The program has become such a mish-mash that the Dirt Mile has not been run on both dirt and at one mile since it was initiated.
The only race with more than a passing interest was the $5 million Classic and Zenyatta was the choice because Jerry Moss decided to risk her 13-of-13 record against males. Days after the Nov. 7 race, kudos for that decision were tempered with criticism for passing up various opportunities to ship his mare out of California to race against Rachel Alexandra.
Moss’ stand against going East and Jess Jackson’s refusal to risk Rachel’s perfect 2008 season on the home field of Zenyatta have created an unending argument.
Until the Breeders’ Cup, Rachel Alexandra was the favorite to be Horse of the Year. The winner of the Fantasy at Oaklawn, she won eight races over a variety of racetracks and beat the boys three times, including the Preakness. Much has been made of her being the first filly to win the race since 1924, but it is also worth noting that no filly has competed in the second jewel of the Triple Crown since 1999. Also know that Jackson chose to run her against older males at 1 1-8 miles instead of taking on 3-year-old males at 1 1-4 miles in the Travers on the same weekend.
Finishing behind Zenyatta in the Classic were the winners of more than a dozen Grade I races, including the Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Travers, Pacific Classic, and a trio in England.
That said, there is a flaw in her resume — she won 13 of her 14 races on synthetic surfaces in California. Her victory in the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn in 2008 was the exception and makes the Hot Springs track the only common ground of the two superb racehorses.
Eyewitnesses to the Apple Blossom in ‘08 and the Fantasy in ‘09, two Oaklawn executives recently agreed to disagree on Horse of the Year.
“For the good of the sport, they’ve got to give them both the Horse of the Year award because it just wouldn’t be fair for one of them to lose,” Hall of Fame jockey Angel Cordero Jr. said after the Breeders’ Cup. “I know one thing, if they do split it, nobody will be mad.”
Eclipse Award voters are not allowed to split their votes and the secret ballot is sacred. But, collusion to affect a tie would be well received.
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Harry King is sports columnist for Stephens Media’s Arkansas News Bureau. His e-mail address is hking@arkansasnews.com.
