Zenyatta after winning the Breeders’ Cup (Aint No Joke)

Having just watched Zenyatta remain perfect at 10-10 in her 5yo debut in the Milady, I’m sure I’m not the only one asking themselves “Zenyatta or Rachel Alexandra?”.

Are they our Personal Ensign and Winning Colors? Will their first meeting be in the Breeders’ Cup or will some track smartly try to draw a very marketable match-up, like say in the Jockey Club or Beldame or Mass Cap?

One thing’s for sure, whenever and wherever this match-up occurs, you really don’t want to miss it.

Zenyatta in the Milady:

Rachel in the Preakness:

In our last poll, GbG readers proved to be on the ball by overwhelmingly thinking that Mine That Bird’s chances in the Preakness were better than he was getting credit for. Although 4 of the 53 votes came after the Preakness. 18 of you thought he had no chance while 17 of you thought his chances where decent on an off track. Perhaps the smartest of all were the 6 brave souls who said they thought he was Triple Crown material… time will tell.

Posted by dana on May 23 2009    
Filed Under: Zenyatta, Impressive, 2009, Rachel Alexandra, Rivalry, Poll, Fans, Race Replay, YouTube, Racing

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Next stop, Baltimore! (brykmantra)

Now that Mine That Bird is officially in the Preakness, what do you think his chances are? No chance? Depends on the weather? He’s better than we’re giving him credit for? Gulp… Triple Crown potential??

Imagine THAT outcome for a moment… and we thought Saturday was wild. In fact, if he won the Triple Crown I think we’d be sitting on the feel good story that could seriously turn racing around from a popularity stand point (ahem).

A dear friend referred to the outcome of the Derby as:

A shining moment for undistinguished individuals everywhere.

Indeed!

There are those who are nitpicking though. Blah, blah, blah shady owners who probably made the purchase with illegally obtained proceeds. Did we love Curlin any less?

Additionally, grousing about Chip Woolley, the trainer, not giving good media abounds. I’m not going to begrudge the guy a little surliness directed at the inanity of asking him some stupid, pointless questions on what had to be the most shocking moment of his life. I love that he’s not some insincere slickster with the ready made “feel good” response that the media craves. Let him have his moment, I’m sure his head was about to explode… after all, he did drive 21 hours to get there!

I’m also not ready to concede that this year’s crop of 3yo colts are sub-par. For all of those folks making fun of Friesan Fire, I look forward to taking your money sometime in the near future. In fact, that holds true for any number of previously well regarded starters who, for whatever reason, had an off day.

Dunkirk? Stumbled, twice. Hello 8-1 next out! Regal Ransom, did exactly what I expected, here’s to 10-1 in a more suitable spot. Desert Party? I still think he’s a better horse than he showed, let’s go 20-1!! And here’s hoping Quality Road, I Want Revenge, Friesan Fire, Dunkirk, Pioneerof the Nile, Musket Man, Papa Clem and Chocolate Candy have a rematch in the Travers.

With 3 weeks out I asked if you had a Derby horse yet. At the time the field wasn’t clear so I didn’t include everyone by name. Naturally 47 of you said that you liked a horse that I didn’t mention by name (I really should have listed more of them, next year!). 35 of you said Friesan Fire was your horse, 32 of you liked I Want Revenge, 23 of you (myself included) said that you hadn’t made your selection yet, 21 of you liked PotN, 14 of you liked Quality Road and 4 of you liked Papa Clem. As always, thanks!

Posted by dana on May 04 2009    
Filed Under: Poll, 2009, Mine That Bird, Mainstream Media, Pimlico, Triple Crown, Preakness, Racing

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I Want Revenge’s seemingly disastrous start in the Wood (Sarah K. Andrew)

With just under 3 weeks left and most of the major preps out of the way, it seems like one should have their Derby horse picked out by now. However, I haven’t really seen a lot, if any, of people bangin’ the Derby drum for one horse or another.

I think this sentiment shared by Kevin of Colin’s Ghost over at the horse player teen party chat line (Twitter) sums it up:

Really looking forward to this years Derby. No clear favorite - should be a good one.

As for my Derby pick, I agree with o_crunk when he says the winner is likely to come from Friesan Fire, Quality Road or I Want Revenge. Three colts I like a lot, have rated 1-2-3 over at PDI and just like last week, I’m not willing to pick any of them as “the one” just yet.

After this weekend though I think Papa Clem looks he might have a shot too after showing off a new trick (sitting further off the pace) and definitely stepping up his game. While I loved General Quarters in the Blue Grass, I think he might do his best running over the fake stuff, although he’s no slouch on the dirt and if he looks anything like he did in the parade for the Bluegrass, look out!

And then there’s Dunkirk and PoTN… I’m with Kevin on this one too when he hopes they take a ton of money!

But who what do you think, do you have your Derby date picked out yet?

Posted by dana on Apr 12 2009    
Filed Under: Quality Road, Dunkirk, I Want Revenge, Papa Clem, Pioneerof the Nile, General Quarters, Friesan Fire, 2009, Kentucky Derby, Derby Trail, 3yo, Sarah K. Andrew, Poll, Racing

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I’m a little perturbed with all the spin about Stardom Bound being “barely best” beating an “unheralded” field and that her connections should face the “sobering reality”.

I couldn’t sum it up any better than Alan at LATG when he says:

Expecting to read the praises of the gritty win by Stardom Bound in the SA Oaks, I was surprised, and rather disappointed, to instead see it being framed in disappointment.

As Frankel put it, “She only ran 10 lengths farther than anybody else in the race”. Call me crazy, but I think having to overcome a wide, hideous, bumpy trip and still gutting it out to win is a plus, not a minus. But when one gets away on an easy lead with no challenge and wins by several lengths, well that’s impressive.

She’s staying put in my top 10 list for the PDI Index, I liked what I saw. (update: I removed her from my list after they announced she was off the trail. If she were still on the trail she would have remained at #2). Would I rather she had an effortless 6 length win? Sure, but what would she get out of that? The Oaks was probably the kind of race she needed if she wants to step up in to open company, and I hope she does!

But what do you think? Do you agree with Iavarone’s oversimplified (whoops, sorry!) assessment that she could “barely beat the girls” or do think she’s shown she can still get the job done even under adverse circumstances?

As for the last poll, it should come as no surprise that Chantal Sutherland was your favorite jock on Jockeys, Win or Die Trying. But, just like Stardom Bound in the Oaks, it wasn’t a runaway and she had to gut it out for the win! In the beginning it was a battle between Talamo & Gryder, but it didn’t take long for Sutherland & Smith to take over and battle for the lead. All the while Kayla Stra was in the mix and for several days she was on top!

There were a whopping 191 votes, that’s almost double the last most voted on poll (your biggest issue with the Breeders’ Cup) and I didn’t even promote this one! The final tally was 45 for Sutherland, 43 for Smith, 42 for Stra, 27 for Talamo, 26 for Gryder and 8 for Court.

As always, thanks for voting, even if you did you show up from a Google search for “pictures of Chantal Sutherland”!

Posted by dana on Mar 08 2009    
Filed Under: Kayla Stra, Jockeys TV Show, Iavarone, Aaron Gryder, Joe Talamo, I Want Revenge, Jon Court, Mike Smith, Stardom Bound, Chantal Sutherland, Derby Trail, Grrrr, Bobby Frankel, Poll, 2009, Impressive, Racing

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It’s a mainstream media extravaganza for horse racing these days!

A few weeks ago there was Leverage and the Real Housewives of Orange County.
Already this week there was a CSI Miami episode and tonight features Churchill’s marketing coup of American Idol auditions, no doubt to help bolster some of their new lines of business.

And then there’s the upcoming series Jockeys on Animal Planet. The news has been out about it for awhile but beyond little clips and sound bites we haven’t had a chance to see what they’re gonna do with it.

The wait is over, hat tip to Powercap for finding an embedable promo with some substance. The full site is finally up too… Jockeys, Win or Die Trying.

They weren’t kidding, that’s their angle! We all know danger is a part of the game, we all know breakdowns are a part of the game but I’m not entirely sure I wanna to see 2.5 breakdowns per scene under of the guise of the breakdown being glamorized.

There’s no doubt there’s a market for this angle, as Powercap points out, this series has the potential to “convince that masses that racing is more exciting than team sports and more extreme than the X games”. On the other hand, it also has the possibility of alienating potential fans who might already be uneasy with the danger associated to the game or worse yet, inflame those who already think horse racing is dog fighting for white people (one of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog’s best lines!).

Commenter Gib pointed out the approach of the CSI Miami episode did racing a disservice, reinforcing stereotypes that racing is always fixed (and that CSI Miami is a horribly acted show!). On the other hand commenter Walter pointed out the “out of site out of mind” principle and that having racing front and center can’t be all that bad.

Perhaps this sneak isn’t totally indicative of what’s to come for Jockeys, Win or Die Trying… it is marketing after all. But let’s say the majority of the series is like the sneak peak. Is this good for racing? Some will love it, some will hate it (and us) even more.

I know I’ll watch the show and probably love it, but I’m not going anywhere. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not Animal Planet’s job to market racing but the series won’t exist in a vacuum either. I’m curious to know if you think it will help or harm racing… or potentially worse, do nothing!

Posted by dana on Jan 21 2009    
Filed Under: Poll, 2009, Jockeys TV Show, Mainstream Media, TV, Fans, Jocks, Marketing, Racing

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