A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

shefast — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 03:45:01 GMT

I am so happy that Zenyatta was given her due as well as her connections! One thing that I noticed a few weeks back is that Sidney's Candy was not up for 3yr old colt? Why...could someone please explain this? In my very humble opinion, he was far more deserving of being a finalist than a couple other of the colts and should have been right up there with LAL. Just not having his name as a finalist just seemed unfair.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

derbyfan — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 13:11:59 GMT

Give Z her credit due. Blame is a great horse and Z is a greater horse.He beat her by a headbob. As far as Goldikova is concerned, she raced here once. HOY should be an American horse.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Susan — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 16:18:35 GMT

As I look forward to the Awards,I am also curious about the fact that 13 voters did not bother to vote. Unless there is a VERY good reason, then those people should have their privaleges revoked. If they are not passionate about the industry that they represent, then we don't want or need their imput.

And while I'm at it, how about a little transparency? Should we not be able to know how evey one voted and why? Yes, some people have declared, but what about all the others? I think the fans, other media and industry people are entitled to know just who these representatives are and what they are thinking.

If you have been around long enough in this business, it's an easy call. Zenyatta, flat out, is the better horse. Her campaign this year, with 5 Grade Ones, and 3 records broken, was 6 inches short of perfect. And a campaign like this we will never see again.

I hope the voters get it right Sunday night. Be prepared for a backlash, if they don't.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

My dream queen — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 23:40:36 GMT

Wow, it looks like the majority of the comments posted are for Zenyatta!I echo all their sentiments & would be terribly disappointed if the award did not go to her this time around. C'mon voters, do the right thing!!!

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

GJU — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:20:37 GMT

To Racingfan,

LOVE and agree with your comments on Jan. 8, 2011 @ 8:10 AM. I think Goldikova is one of the best horses around, but if she wins HOY, I will be livid....because of the exact points you made in your post.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

GJU — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:10:25 GMT

I'll be watching for one reason and that is in hopes of seeing Zenyatta get Horse Of The Year. I am prepared for Blame to get it, but it belongs to Zenyatta in my opinion. I will be glad to see Team Zenyatta get their special award too. Will I watch again next year? Most likely not. I watched for the first time last year (because of Zenyatta) and I thought it made for pretty dull television watching (and I follow horse racing). Glad it's there if I want to watch it, though. Good luck to Zenyatta. I think she's going to need it. She's my Horse Of The Year (Decade, Lifetime, whatever!) anyway.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

draynay — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 17:54:08 GMT

quarterhossga, Are you kidding ? Zenyatta has ducked all year. Blame is the winner at least 2-1. You can take that to the bank !

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

arliss — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:19:57 GMT

If Zenyatta does not win HOY, it only shows the petty jealousies that illustrate the greed and illogical thinking that is ruining the sport. Where is Rachel Alexandra today? It was a disgrace to award that horse HOY, and it will be a bigger disgrace to give it to Blame.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 12:49:40 GMT

I think that if Zenyatta is going to be cheated once again for HOTY, I'd rather see it go to Goldikova.

Zenyatta beat everything Blame beat and only came up a few inches short of beating him. So, if the voters want to be shrubbing to Zenyatta, then be shrubbing to Blame as well, and give it to Goldikova.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Livesoutwest — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 08:37:57 GMT

Yvonne and Maurice,

I'm rooting for Zenyatta to win HOY too, because I think she earned it on merit just for what she did this year. And because Blame threw in a well-beaten second place finish in a year when you couldn't afford a well beaten second.

But Zenyatta should have beaten Blame by five lengths? If she had that much left in the tank, she should have galloped past him after the finish. But she didn't, and in fact he strode away from her like he was fresh as a daisy, while she was spent. Having a little more distance to work with would not have altered the outcome of the race in my opinion.

And Horse Of All Time? Oh come on. Zenyatta and Blame are two great horses who are roughly on a par. Maybe if they raced ten times, she might win six or seven based on varying distances, surfaces, etc. Or he might. There's a slim margin between them ability-wise. She certainly achieved far more than he did during her career, but that doesn't mean she's much more talented. And when you say she's the Horse Of All Time, look at the other great horses in history like Secretariat, Citation, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, Spectacular Bid, Dr. Fager and any one of them and several more blow both Blame and Zenyatta off the track if they all raced on their best days. It wouldn't even be close.

If you want to make the case that she deserves to be called the best of HER time, I'm with you there, but that's as far as I go.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Bellwether — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 06:19:44 GMT

HOW BOUT AN AWARD FORE...DUCK & SLIDE...NTRA,TRA,BC...& BUY ALL MEAN$ THE KHRC???...LONG LIVE "THE KING" BABY!!!...

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Sophie15 — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 04:43:54 GMT

I calculated HOY between Zenyatta and Blame using a point system. The criteria is listed below.

Grade 1 10 pt + # of horses

Grade 2 8 pt + # of horses

Grade 3 6 pt + # of horses

Upgraded stakes 4 pt + # of horses

2nd place in these races will earn half the number of points as first place. 3rd place will earn half of the second place points.

Points are only awarded for races won in the US.

An extra ten points will be awarded to a horse that does the following:

-Breaks a record

-Wins the Triple Crown

-Wins the Filly Triple Crown

-Breaks the earnings record for colts

-Breaks the earnings record for fillys

Zenyatta:

- G1 Santa Margarita 17

- G1 Apple Blossom 14

- G1 Vanity 15

- G1 Clement L Hirsch 15

- G1 Lady’s Secret 14

- G1 BCC 10.5

Total 85.5

Blame:

- G1 Breeders Cup Classic 21

- G3 William Donald Schaefer 14

- G1 Stephen Foster 20

- G1 Whitney 15

- G1 JCC 7.5

Total 77.5

Zenyatta is the winner based on this point system. I did not calculate any other horses so I don't know if they have more points than Zenyatta.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Robin from Maryland — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 02:58:04 GMT

Congrats to Team Z and their award. I'm afraid it's all they may receive. Too Bad. But as usual the West Coasters can never beat the Easterners. Why the Queen continues to be overlooked is beyond me. Frustrating as all get out. I don't care what the voters say - Zenyatta is my Horse of the Year just as she was last year. No one can knock her record. She is one for the ages. Waiting eagerly for her first foal, and the beginning of a new chapter in history. Go Team Z Go. You guys ROCK!!! No pun intended.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Mike Relva — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 01:53:40 GMT

NANCY

I agree with your comments.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Kacy — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 00:19:45 GMT

Wish I could be there in person but will be watching on TVG ! A special thanks to TVG for broadcasting it so we can at least feel like we are there. I am looking forward to every minute of it.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Rachel O — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 23:35:41 GMT

There is no award that is good enough for what Zenyatta accomplished this year or in her career. So far as I'm concerned, and I've been around longer than most of you out there, she's the best race horse ever.

I'm not going to watch TV when the awards are given out. They are meaningless and, frankly, destructive. Racing continues to shoot itself in the foot with these awards.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

susan barry — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 21:39:25 GMT

TWO POINTS: Zenyatta's US horseracing history-making 19th victory was achieved in 2010, no other year, and was a zenith event towering over all nationally run horses since US horseracing stats began. Earned this year, it should be definitely counted in consideration of the 2010 HOY.

A rarely-mentioned IRONY of 2008 vs 2010 HOY media coverage and comparison: I recall how quickly writers excused and overlooked/"wrote off" Curlin's 2008 poor BCC performance because it was a different surface and his first time to run at Santa Anita's track. Curlin, though, was handily defeated by a foreign horse who hadn't run there either, whereas the horse that was able to defeat Zenyatta--a novice to Churchill Down's dirt track---only by inches had numerous racing rehearsals at CD.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

quarterhossgal — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 20:00:54 GMT

There is no question who is HOY, decade or century!! It is ZENYATTA! She has never been beaten by more than a short head, while Blame was beaten by multiple lenghts by Haynesfield, who ZENYATTA beat by multiple lengths.

Zenyatta is 2 time Breeder's Cup winner with a second by a short head in the 2010 Classic. Blame was retired after only one try at Breeder's Cup races. I agree with the previous posts racing will take many steps backward if the voters do not make ZENYATTA HOY.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Regina — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:07:28 GMT

I shall be there in person as I was for most of her races to honor the Great Mare and her extraordinary Team Zenyatta. Should she be passed over once again for HOY honors, I echo the sentiments of the first two respondents above.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Nancy — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 18:20:28 GMT

ya know what? I don't care anymore. Horse of the Year lost it's validity for me last year. Zen did everything she was supposed to, including the Classic. But she didn't get the top spot. This year Blame will probably get it because he did. If she does get it, and she should, it's kind of like getting an Oscar for life time achievement instead of for one hell of a blockbuster year ... 2009.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Zen's Auntie — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 17:33:59 GMT

Perhaps the two special awards are to lessen the sting for both sets of American connections when Goldikova gets it.

As much as both special award winners deserve the props - when I first heard it that's what it made me think.

I have resloved not to be disppointed, upset or shocked about any Eclipse award choices - I'm just looking forward to other good horses doing thier thing.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Pboo — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:34:15 GMT

I am sorry to see that the author seems to mdismiss Goldikove from HOY completely..she is already European HOY and the award Tuesday is for North American HOY only. Too bad there isn't a true worldwide HOY award...anyway, here is a vote for Goldikova followed by Zenyatta with Blame trailing badly.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Racingfan — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 13:10:27 GMT

Alex, one more thing I am wondering....who makes the rules for the Eclipse voting? I really feel they need to be changed. The one start in this country rule is ridiculous and needs to be removed. No horse that races once here should be able to win! Also there needs to be some objective measurement of the campaigns, like a point system. I still can't believe Goldikova is nominated for HOTY! That means her one race was better than all of Zenyatta's combined? I don't think so. Actually she is getting credit for having won a record 3 Breeder's Cups, BUT as everyone keeps saying about Zenyatta - all years before 2010 do NOT count. I have even read where a few people said Blame should win because Claiborne deserves it due to their 100 year history in the sport! So for Zenyatta it's only this year that counts but for Goldi it's the last 3 years and for Blame it's the past 100 years...? The double standards and hypocrisy in the voting both last year and this year is seriously calling into question the integrity of the awards in my opinion.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Victoria's mum — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:58:22 GMT

What a huge, positive influence Zenyatta and team have had on my 7-year-old daughter! I'm sure her many achievements at school and otherwise are to blame (no pun intended) in large part, on them. Zenyatta's career has been such an inspiration.

re: A Special Night at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach

Michelle — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 05:09:04 GMT

I am afraid that we need to prepare ourselves for Zenyatta not to get Horse of the Year. I certainly believe she deserves it but the bar keeps being raised higher and higher where Zenyatta is concerned. If she had raced one more race against males on dirt maybe she would be more highly regarded but I wonder if she could ever do enough to measure up in some people's eyes. It is just a shame that some cannot recognize greatness when they see it.