Let's face it; the 2009 Breeders' Cup will forever belong to Zenyatta. She picked it up off the ground and raised it over her head like Atlas holding up the world. No burden has proven too great for this magnificent mare, and you can bet people will be watching her swan song in the Breeders' Cup Classic for decades to come and will be getting goose bumps every time they do.

The day after the 1987 Preakness Stakes, I stopped at a service area on I-95 in Maryland on my way back home from the Preakness and called Jack Van Berg, asking if I could do a feature on him for the Thoroughbred Times, which had only been in existence for about a year. I had never met Van Berg, who was on top of the world at the time and who looked like a sure bet to saddle racing's next Triple Crown winner following Alysheba's impressive victories in the Kentucky Derby and Preakness.

How does one even begin to comment on this year's wild and crazy Breeders' Cup? Pro-Ride form, the absence of any injuries, the filly phenomena, the European butt-whipping, Santa Anita, Horse of the Year, ESPN's new camera shots? That's just for starters.

With the unfortunate retirement of Big Brown, the Breeders' Cup pre-entries, a weekly column to write, and preparation for the Classic occupying most of my time this week, I thought, because of the interest shown in Invasor on my last blog and in several recent e-mails, I would reprint two stories (a commentary and parts of my Classic recap).