“Zenyatta, Horse for Ages, Should Be Horse of the Year” plus 2 more |
- Zenyatta, Horse for Ages, Should Be Horse of the Year
- Horse racing season takes off tomorrow with U*BET Championship
- HORSE RACING
| Zenyatta, Horse for Ages, Should Be Horse of the Year Posted: 15 Jan 2011 03:36 PM PST It's a match race, a fiercely contested one, for Horse of the Year: the great racemare Zenyatta versus the talented colt Blame, the only rival ever to finish in front of her. A noisy debate over who is more deserving has raged on. Luke Sharrett for The New York TimesWorkers at Lane's End Farm in Versailles, Ky., with the mare Zenyatta, who lost only one time in a three-year racing career. One side or another is going to be bitterly disappointed when the results are announced Monday night at the Eclipse Awards in Miami. The award is voted on by members of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, the National Turf Writers Association and The Daily Racing Form. The New York Times has a policy of not allowing reporters to vote for awards, but I've made it known across social networks and in old-fashioned newspaper columns that I would have voted for Zenyatta. There are no hard-and-fast criteria for how to weigh one horse against another, and that is one of the reasons passions have been so inflamed. Essentially, two schools of thought have emerged — vote with your head or your heart. Al Stall Jr., the trainer of Blame, summed up the first approach. "I'm kind of a strength-of-schedule, and head-to-head kind of guy," he said. "That's why I believe Blame should be Horse of the Year." That's reasonable, but hardly bulletproof. Blame beat Zenyatta fair and square by a half head in a race for the ages in the Breeders' Cup Classic. But his strength of schedule is underwhelming — four wins, three of them in Grade I races. Blame was carrying five pounds less than Quality Road, however, when he caught that colt at the wire to win the Whitney Handicap by a head. In the Jockey Club Gold Cup, Haynesfield beat Blame soundly by four lengths. In the Classic, Quality Road finished 12th and last, and Haynesfield crossed the wire in 11th place. Zenyatta's owner Jerry Moss speaks to the more expansive view. "To me, that is the most important racehorse campaigned in North America for the past 12 months," he said. "It means who is the horse that people look for when they look on TV or in The Racing Form? Who is the year about?" No one can deny that Zenyatta single-handedly made horse racing respectable and fun again, if not quite fashionable. She put the sport back on national television with a "60 Minutes" segment, and with articles in W and Oprah magazines. She is approaching 60,000 followers on Facebook. For the second year in a row, she finished second in voting for the Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year, this time to the gold medal skier Lindsey Vonn. Zenyatta also beat all but one comer over a spectacular three-year racing career. "She won five Grade I's this year," Moss said, "and carried 19 in a row, and 13 Grade I's, into that Breeders' Cup race." I know the traditionalists argue time and again that induction into racing's Hall of Fame rewards a career while Horse of the Year means just that. So what logic is at work saying Zenyatta is a first-ballot Hall of Famer — an honor that Blame will never earn — but she is only the second-best horse of 2011? Horse of the Year voting should not be like filling out a Pick 6 ticket where speed figures and track surfaces and pace are sliced and diced in hopes of a successful trip to the windows. It is more important than that. It should take the measure of greatness. Celebrate it. Zenyatta is one of horse racing's greats. She should be honored as one. This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
| Horse racing season takes off tomorrow with U*BET Championship Posted: 15 Jan 2011 05:59 AM PST After a short break the 2011 horse racing season takes off tomorrow with a programme of 10 trot races 6 of which are championship heats from the now established U*Bet Championship reserved for Swedish trotters. The programme takes off at 13:30 with a normal race for the Copper category over 2140m. In fact all the races are over this distance except the 4th race which is open for horses that usually race in the old track. During this season the Malta Racing Club has announced a slight change in the point system for horses. Whilst the gained points will remain the same i.e. 30 for the winner, 9 for 2nd placed, 5 for 3rd placed and 1 point for a 4th place the changes will occur in how many points will be deducted for the non placed horses. Up until the end of 2010 all the non placed and disqualified horses had 10 points deducted now this has been changed. As from this season, if a horse places in 5th or 6th place he will have 5 points deducted, if it places 7th or 8th it will have 7 points deducted and if it places 9th or further back or gets disqualified 9 points will be deducted. This change has mainly been done for two reasons – the first because too many horses are going down to lower classes thus creating a congestion whilst depleting the upper ones and secondly in order to try and deter many horse owners from sending their horses "not to win" in order to make it in time in a lower class for championships! Another important thing that happened last week was the election for the Horse Owners', Drivers' and Jockeys' Representatives in the MRC Council. If you are an MRC member and had not heard about this, don't worry because it came as a surprise to nearly everyone including me. This year this election was held hush hush and against all regulations of a normal election as members were not informed about it. This certainly does not augur well for the coming year when one considers the very low number of people who actually got to vote. First members were not informed that the nominations were open as is the normal procedure and if money for postage was the issue this could have been very easily included in the notice every owner, driver and jockey received to renew their membership payment! Secondly if a person had not ventured to the Malta Racing Club in the past fortnight he did not know when the actual election was to be held. I only found out through a private website which posted a notice on the actual day of the election. Disgracefully up till today the official Malta Racing Club website does not mention this election. Another thing about this election was the misinformation to those that happened to be present at the Malta Racing Club and asked to vote. Whereas before members placed a cross against the three names of their preferred choices to represent them, this year they were asked to put 1, 2 and 3 without telling them that actually only the number 1 counted for election purposes. This was very misleading and unfair on the contestants. SEASON TAKES OFF TOMORROW WITH U*BET For information purposes I have managed to get hold of a result showing the number 1 cast votes as follows: 1. Tony Demanuele – 112 This means that for this year the horse owners', drivers' and jockeys' representatives will be Tony, Salvu and Jason. Let us hope that the MRC members will be satisfied with their choices and good luck to the elected three as they will certainly have a lot of challenges to face during this year. Getting back to tomorrow's racing programme we have the Silver and Bronze Category Swedish horses in action in three heats each from which the first 6 horses will qualify for the semi finals to be held on 30th January. 73 Swedish horses will be participating of which 8 will be making their first start in Malta. We also have a Premier category race with 14 starters which should be quite interesting. 4 of these horses are Swedish and will be competing in the U*Bet Premier Category Championship Final on the 13th February. This race also sees the return of Iris du Louvet who has not started since the end of May 2010. Whilst predictions are always difficult, the first few races of the season are harder than others as one is not always sure about the form of a horse that has not been racing. Some horses might have improved whilst others regressed during the period of no racing. As the stoppage time this year has been very minimal this should not affect the outcome as much as usual. These are the non starters for tomorrow's programme: 7th Race – No. 5 Kaellna Fido The following are the new horses in this programme: 2nd Race – Silver Category Lonestar Somolli – an 8-year old Danish gelding sired by Buzzin Brian out of Pearl Somolli having won Sek 180,050 in his overseas racing career 3rd Race – U*Bet Championship Heat 1 – Bronze Category Tap Dancing – a 6-year old Swedish mare sired by Tap In out of Dancing As having won Sek 56,250 in her overseas racing career 5th Race – U*Bet Championship Heat 1 – Silver Category Ironbar – a 7-year old Swedish gelding sired by Tap In out of Keystone Simone having won Sek 203,800 in his overseas racing career Meadow Star – a 9-year old Swedish gelding sired by Zoogin out of Caisa Sting having won Sek 300,950 in his overseas racing career 6th Race – U*Bet Championship Heat 2 – Bronze Category Upptillbevis – an 8-year old Swedish gelding sired by Comets Tail out of Aminne having won Sek 112,963 in his overseas racing career 7th Race – U*Bet Championship Heat 3 – Bronze Category Apple Tooma – a 7-year old Swedish mare sired by Wall Street Banker out of Dazzona I.T. having won Sek 126,500 in her overseas racing career 10th Race – U*Bet Championship Heat 3 – Silver Category Money Boy – a 9-year old Swedish gelding sired by Carmody Lobell out of Karina Mic having won Sek 336,700 in his overseas racing career My tentative predictions are the following: 1st Race – Copper – General, Loulou de la Rose, Major de Clerlande During the past weeks we have received some results of doping tests taken at the end of last season. The first three tests were received on the 5th January 2011 and pertain to the President's Cup Final for trotters and the Coronation Cup Final for thoroughbreds. In the Coronation Cup, 2nd placed Etoile du Pic tested positive for Flunixine. This is a 3rd category offence and is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used in horses as an analgesic and antipyretic. Because it targets the inflamed tissue, it is mainly used for colic and muscle pain, joint diseases and to alleviate fevers and pain. It can be detected in the blood for 2- 3 days and in the urine up to 15 days following administration. Because of this result, Etoile du Pic has been stripped of her 2nd place and will not be able to race for 10 meetings. As the other tests taken for the same race have not yet arrived, we will not be giving you the amended result at this time. The doping tests taken during the President's Cup Final were both received and unfortunately they were both positive. Winner Bello Fratello was found positive for the 3rd category drug Methylprednisolone. This is a synthetic glucocorticoid or corticosteroid drug and is typically used for its anti-inflammatory effects. The owners of Bello Fratello are exercising their rights to re-test the B Sample in order to confirm or contradict the result. When this is received we will then give you the amended result. Second placed Niarpan also tested positive for Phenylbutazone/Oxyphenbutazone. This is also a 3rd category offence and it is a medication that relieves pain and reduces swelling, inflammation and fever. It is commonly used to treat pain, swelling and stiffness associated with arthritis and other painful conditions. The horse has been disqualified and banned from competition for 10 meetings. On 11th January the result for the doping test taken for Kendo du Chene was received and published by the Malta Racing Club. Kendo du Chene had won the Prix de Caen Final for Copper Horses on 19th December. Unfortunately this was also a positive result as Dexamethasone was detected in the urine. This is a category 3 offence and it is a synthetic corticosteroid hormone used to manage inflammation in diseases or conditions in which the immune system has a significant role. The anti-inflammatory effects of dexamethasone are about twenty-five times stronger than those of natural cortisol. Kendo du Chene has consequently been disqualified and banned from competition for 10 meetings. The amended result of this race is the following: Prix de Caen Final – Copper Category – 19th December 2010 – 2640m Autostart 1. Juaben (Shaun Portelli) – 1'19"5 We will be updating you on the other results as they are received by the Malta Racing Club. When they are all finalised we will then give you the final classifications for 2010 as they might be effected by these results. 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| Posted: 15 Jan 2011 03:12 AM PST Posted: January 15, 2011 | 12:00 a.m. TODAY AT SANTA ANITA PARK By Richard Eng Post Time 12:30 p.m. Race 1 - 6 furlongs, Purse $16,000, Claiming $12,500, Fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up 7 Pat Olcott - As fast as this main track has been, it helps to have early speed; the stretch is becoming a no passing zone. 2 Angel Before Us - If the speed collapses, the favorite is the most obvious horse to pick up the pieces in the stretch run. Long Shot - 3 Girlwithegoldhoof Race 2 - 6 1/2 furlongs (turf), Purse $54,000, Maiden special weights, 3-year-olds 6 Lula Talullah - Like the turn back in distance from a mile for this; outer draw helps too, figures to be firing fast late. 2 Arousal - Three solid races, now tries the hillside for the first time; turf rail is at zero for the first time this meet. Long Shot - 7 Eric the Ram Race 3 - 1 1/16th miles, $100,000 Sham, 3-year-olds 4 Tapizar - Most impressive MSW winner last out at Churchill Downs; why do I get the feeling this is a glorified NW1X allowance? 2 Uncle Sam - In my mind, this Bob Baffert charge has the highest ceiling; among 4 MSW graduates in the stakes field. Long Shot - 1 Clubhouse Ride Race 4 - 6 1/2 furlongs, Purse $16,000, Claiming $8,000, Fillies and mares, 4-year-olds and up 4 Our Bellini Bikini - Reunited with Martin Pedroza who has won twice on her; tactical speed to sit a perfect stalking trip. 6 Saint's Crown - Sure to be overlooked with Joy Scott on board; type of horse you want with Joy, speed to be forwardly placed. Long Shot - 5 Miner Pic Race 5 - 1 mile (turf), Purse $54,000, Maiden special weight, 4-year-olds and up 9 Isle of Prado - Don't you like betting a horse that lost rider in last?; I like the key race he ran in two races ago. 4 Kumiva - Tepid chalk in a wild, wide-open turf route; I liked him last time at 26/1, that price is long gone. Long Shot - 6 Screaming Destiny Race 6 - 7 furlongs, $150,000 Santa Ynez, Fillies, 3-year-olds 3 Zazu - Like the turn back in distance from route to elongated sprint; gave Turbulent Descent a good fight in the Moccasin. 1 California Nectar - Has a lot more experience than most in this field; don't overlook a solid win last out over Arcadia dirt. Long Shot - 4 Plum Pretty Race 7 - 6 1/2 furlongs (turf), Purse $59,000, Optional claiming $62,500, 4-year-olds and up 2 Celtic New Year - Interesting 12/1 bomb makes his first start for John Sadler; this guy is not without talent, fires big late. 3 Earnednevergiven - Tepid chalk in the hardest race on the card; is 2-for-2 wins over Arcadia grass, has quickness to be well placed. Long Shot - 4 Red Alert Day Race 8 - 1 1/16th miles, $150,000 San Fernando, 4-year-olds 6 Thiskyhasnolimit - Had no shot in the Malibu chasing a 44.3 half mile; today's pace will be much more to his liking. 1 Tweebster - Bob Baffert has an uncoupled entry and both have a puncher's chance; the other colt is Indian Firewater. Long Shot - 7 Indian Firewater Race 9 - 5 1/2 furlongs, Purse $23,000, Maiden claiming $30,000, 3-year-olds 7 Cabo San Lucas - Stupid ride last time to open up a 5-length lead in 21.1; expect Joe Talamo to nurse the speedball much better. 4 Ultimate Question - Might get overlooked with switch to low percentage bugboy; 5 pounds off is a major plus. Long Shot - 6 Pure Distinction Best Bet - 3 Zazu (race 6) Santa Anita Park Friday - Picks/Winners/Mutuels, 16/4/$21.60; Long Shots, 8/1/$7.00; Best Bet, 1/0/$0 Santa Anita Park Totals - 212/60/$370.70; Long Shots, 105/14/$150.20; Best Bets, 12/6/$21.70 SIMULCAST PICK OF THE DAY - 8 Devilish Lady (8/5) in race 7 at Tampa Bay Downs. For scoring purposes, we'll make a hypothetical $2 win, place and show bet, $6 total. On Friday, Great Indian ran second at Tampa Bay Downs paying $3.60 to place and $2.80 to show. Stats - 12/9/$65.40 This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php |
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