Rachel or Zenyatta?
Last Saturday, I was at Santa Anita with 58,000 other racing fans watching Zenyatta’s sublime performance in the Breeder’s Cup Classic. Many of the articles I’ve read in the past few days have insisted that Zenyatta be named Horse of the Year, but they seem to be forgetting about Rachel’s stellar year. I hope the Eclipse award voters will take more than Zenyatta’s last race (albeit an amazing performance) into account. Let’s look at the data:
Rachel Alexandra
Age: 3
2009 race record: 8 starts, 8 wins
Surfaces run on in 2009: Dirt
Number of tracks run on in 2009: 7
Classic wins: 1 (Preakness)
Wins against males: 3
Wins against older horses: 1
Zenyatta
Age 5:
2009 race record: 5 starts, 5 wins
Surfaces run on in 2009: Synthetic
Number of tracks run on in 2009: 3
Classic wins: 0
Wins against colts: 1
Wins against older horses: 1
I’m thrilled to have seen Zenyatta run the race of her life, but when it comes to the statistics, I think Rachel’s got her beat—with a Classic win and three victories over males (including her win in the Haskell against older horses). What do you think?
