2009 Horse of the Year.?

Hi, Only two horses are in the running for HOY. We all know the races each of them has won, but we need to evaluate the significance of them, and what they represent. Rachel has won some important races, against the boys. But the truth is, they were young fields of unproven colts. Not to sell her short, she is a great filly, and I am a huge fan of hers. But the three organizations that decide who gets HOY will look for the horse who accomplished the greatest feats. Zen, beat the best horses in the world, not just three-year-olds. Winning the Classic is something no filly has ever done, and she did it with style, and grace. I think the powers that be will consider that heavily in her favor. The awards are coming up next month, so we do not have much longer to find out who wins this prestigious honor.

First I would like to start by saying that 2009 was the first year that I have ever followed horse racing at all. Of course I have heard of some of the great horses that have raced and left their mark on history but it never interested me enough to watch until 2009. It takes something or some one special to get my attention. You have to earn me as a fan. I will not just look at something because someone else likes it or because they are advertising a must see event. I look at it only if I am drawn in by a rare and special gift that I cannot stop enjoying. That is how I pick all and any of my favorite players, teams in any sport as well as entertainers, singers and pretty much anything. I do not like to settle.

Rachel Alexandra is my reason for following horse racing at the moment & when she retires I will also unless another horse comes along and intrigues me as well. I am drawn to history makers with pure natural talent. There are many good horses out there in my opinion but Rachel is one of the rare ones that comes along ever so often throughout history. You can train a good race horse and they can win a lot but Rachel Alexandra is naturally gifted. Being good is not enough when you face a horse that was born gifted as we have witnessed in 2009.

Many people are making their decision based on favortism and not the picture as a whole. If in fact Rachel & Zenyatta raced I strongly feel that Rachel would have won. I am making my decison based on speed and no horse this year was faster than Rachel and that includes Zenyatta. Zenyatta would have came up short like Mine that bird did in the Preakness or she could have possibly been blown away by Rachel which we all know is highly possible if we look at the real facts.

Any horse that can get a diva like me to watch horse racing is definately the Horse of the Year. Rachel Alexandra is the 2009 Horse of the Year.

More info below:

In this 2009 year alone, Rachel Alexandra:

1) has set TWO stakes records for time in: Martha Washington, Mother Goose.

2) has set TWO stakes records for largest winning margin in: Kentucky Oaks, Mother Goose

3) was the ONLY horse (male or female) ever to win the Preakness from the far outside gate

4) was the ONLY female EVER to win the Woodward

5) TWICE, came within 1 second of breaking the TRACK RECORDS (at Belmont and Monmouth)

6) had the HIGHEST Beyer Speed rating this year of 116. (The Haskell)

I will end by saying that Zenyatta is indeed an awesome horse and her name will go down in history. I watched her races and career on youtube to make a fair evaluation. Zenyatta just happenes to be a great philly in the time of the SUPER PHILLY.

As for a 3rd I would have to say Gio Ponti based on his accomplishments in 2009.

Some sites are adding co-champians in the vote..which I have to agree with. Co-Champions - Rachel and Zenyatta. High Emotions are involved here for me...as a fan of horse racing, seeing such amazing accomplishments this year is awesome and by two Queens. I can't seem to pick one over the other..I've said this many a times this year, that I've enjoyed watching both Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra, both have total different running styles making them both very interesting to watch. And, with that, the fact that the ladies have very different running styles also made a match-up intriguing to race fans, unfortunately, it won't happen. Rachel Alexandra is a speed horse who normally is on the lead, and Zenyatta comes from off the pace, sometimes by double-digit lengths, and wins fairly close finishes. Since we are certain at this point they will never meet..but, if in they did indeed meet in a race Zenyatta would have to come and get 'Rachel', and who knows, it may of ended in a dead heat.

I feel Zenyatta being the older horse and having more experience and time in will have the edge in votes. Zenyatta has an amazing personality..I loved watching her dance..! And, Whatever happens, neither horse has anything to prove.

Facts:

Zenyatta- Her 14 victories did not all come in 2009, her 14th did. She beat the deepest field assembled all year, male winners of eight Grade/Group 1 races, and she did it within herself, the first of her sex to do so. She won the Grade 1 Vanity Handicap shouldering 129 pounds. She defeated the winner of this year’s Ladies Classic authoritatively on three occasions.

RA - 8-for-8 at seven different tracks, she made history on six occasions, relative to running time, winning margin, post position and race history. And we're not counting the 85 years between filly Preakness winners. And, of course, she stepped out of her division in half of her eight victories, defeating males who accounted for 11 Grade 1 winners.

In closing, I can't decide between these two, little-alone a thrid nominee, so with that, I'll stick with the ladies.

Final thought..With only one winner permitted, it will be bitter sweet for me!

2009...What a year!

Easy call. I don't want to go on a tirade as I did during the Breeders Cup, but I agree with my wagering mentor Andy Beyer, here is the case from a long time racing expert, in todays DRF.

Who had better season? An easy call

By Andrew Beyer

WASHINGTON - A confrontation between Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta would have generated more attention and excitement than any horse race in years. But because the two great females didn't face each other on the track, their fans are now pouring their passions into the debate over which one deserves to be the Horse of the Year.

With balloting for the Eclipse Awards under way, some voters wish that they were allowed to designate joint champions. But many people on each side of the debate believe that there is only one rightful winner, and they are vociferous in their opinions. Usually, the key question in such debates is the most basic one: Who was the better horse? Who would have won in a head-to-head showdown? I would normally answer this question by judging which horse ran faster.

But the traditional measurements are irrelevant because America's two best Thoroughbreds excelled on different surfaces. Rachel Alexandra made her reputation on dirt, while Zenyatta raced on California's synthetic tracks. If they had faced each other on dirt, the winner probably would have been Rachel Alexandra; on a synthetic track, Zenyatta. So voters must decide which filly had the better 2009 season. There should be no real debate on this question: Rachel Alexandra did.

Her campaign was, in my opinion, the best ever by a U.S.-based filly. The other great fillies of the modern era - such as Ruffian, Personal Ensign, Lady's Secret, and Azeri - made their reputations by dominating members of their own sex but didn't dominate males. Rachel Alexandra challenged males in three Grade 1 stakes - the Preakness, the Haskell Invitational, and the Woodward - and won them all. She trounced Summer Bird, the best male 3-year-old, by six lengths. Overall, she won her eight starts by a combined total of 65 lengths. Zenyatta made five starts, all in her home base of California, and won them by a combined margin of 6 3/4 lengths. She scored four wins against soft filly-and-mare competition before she ended her career by winning the Breeders' Cup Classic, becoming the first member of her sex to capture America's richest race. Her claim to the Horse of the Year title rests almost entirely on that performance. (The Eclipse Awards honor the best performers in a given year; they are not lifetime achievement awards, so Zenyatta's illustrious 2008 season and her 14-for-14 career record are not part of the debate.)

Zenyatta's admirers describe her Classic win in extravagant terms. Greg Avioli, president of the Breeders" Cup, called it "arguably the greatest performance in the 26-year history of the event." This is something of an overstatement. The male synthetic-track specialists behind Zenyatta were an undistinguished group. (Second-rate horses had won the two big California stakes that led up to the Cup.) Moreover, Zenyatta's eye-catching last-to-first rally was not an extraordinary feat on a synthetic track that generally favors runners with such a style.

Nevertheless, it was a commendable and historic performance, and fans can reasonably debate whether Zenyatta's Classic victory was enough to trump Rachel's ambitious campaign and her three Grade 1 victories over males. However, many of Zenyatta's supporters frame a different argument: Zenyatta deserves the title because she won the sport's definitive championship event while her rival ducked it. Ray Paulick, the respected editor of the online Paulick Report, supported his choice by declaring: "Zenyatta showed up and turned in a performance for the ages. Rachel Alexandra remained in her stall, resting on her own historic achievements earlier in the year."

It is unfair to accuse owner Jess Jackson of ducking anything. He sought out the toughest possible challenges for Rachel Alexandra, but he drew the line at running her over "plastic," his contemptuous description of the Pro-Ride surface at Santa Anita.

Zenyatta's owner, trainer, and fans argue that participants in the Breeders' Cup have to accept the conditions at the track that hosts the event. If the 2009 Cup had been contested over a dirt track, Zenyatta would have been there.

In Thoroughbred racing, nobody decrees the races that decide championships. Races take on championship significance when owners and trainers recognize their importance and support them. The Classic is a premier event because running 1 1/4 miles on dirt is regarded as the definitive test of American Thoroughbreds. If the Breeders' Cup organization changed the distance to two miles, nobody would recognize it as a legitimate championship race.

When the Breeders' Cup chose Santa Anita as its host track for both 2008 and 2009, the organization -

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I heard about what happened to Rachel last night, Sandra. I was watching "The Edge" on HRTV and they had a segment about it, along with a phone conversation with one of the vets who is treating RA. Apparently the mare suffered a bruised colon during her delivery last Tuesday night. She had a beautiful, healthy filly, according to the vet, but the foal's passage evidently caused some problems for her. They did the surgery to remove the damaged section of the colon to prevent it from becoming infected and necrotic. The surgery was successful, and as of last night, they were expecting the mare to make a full recovery. She's back on her feet, and she and her foal are both doing well. So I'm optimistic. Rood and Riddle is one of the best equine hospitals in the country- it's on a par with New Bolton- and there is every reason to think that RA will recover and will go on to have several more foals. As long as she doesn't develop a post operative infection, she should be fine,

Zenyatta deserves to be horse of the year.

gotta say zenyatta. not as good of a year for horse racing as '08 was though. Big Brown!

ZENYATTA,

ARE THEY GOING TO ROB HER ANOTHER HORSE OF THE YEAR TITLE?

rachel alexandra, but if it is another horse i think it would most likely be summer bird

rachel alexdra. well she is a exquisite horse.