Zenyatta Vs. Rachel Alexandra ( Archived) (21)

That's true, they generally don't make good broodmares as they tend to have trouble conceiving and carrying a foal to term. Still, I would have liked to see them race against one another....Well, we will get to see Rachel race next year anyway, as Kenyatta is due to be retired I hear. Also, Kenyatta is 2 years older than Rachel-I was wrong in my earlier post.

I think American racing has been fixated on speed for too long, as in yesteryear, the best horses were aften raced up to two miles. What they need more of IMO, is less fragile horses-all of these breakdowns (which may be due to speed) are not good. Good post!

Breakdowns are always going to exist to some extent, but some of these trainers that run their horses on less than 10 days rest are only in racing for the money and glory. They are a detriment to the sport.

Personally, I don't care a whole lot for the poly tracks and I admit they do help to a certain extent. I would be more open to poly tracks if all the tracks that use them would collectively decide to use only one style of poly track. That way, consistent statistics would develop over time and bettors could have some reliable statistics.

Back to the main point. This obsession with speed racing will ruin the industry if it continues on the same path and breakdowns will continue wether there are poly tracks or not. I say leave the short distance speed racing to the quarterhorses. I personally like the classic distances in the weeds.

They push the horses too fast, too young. 22 1/2 as 2 yo's! I don't know about the days of rest theory though. Kenyatta is a 5 yo and has only raced 14 times.

Most of your better horses do get plenty of rest because they are usually trained by the better trainers. The ones that get very short rest periods usually race at the lower level tracks such as Mountaineer (WV), River Downs (OH), Beulah (OH), and so on and so on. These are what I refer to as "nag" tracks and where real bettors tread lightly. Their biggest purse of the day might be 25K and their average race purse is around 2K.

One of the worst trainers for running horses on too little rest is from your neck of the woods. His name is Scott Lake.

I'll be advised! Yes, the lower claimers can be hard pressed, but look back at some of the great horses from yesteryear and how many times they ran-makes you wonder how horses got so wimpy!

I've seen many horses blossom into monsters after being put in the right hands. One that comes to mind is Funny Cide. The group of friends that purchased him payed somewhere in the 30-40K range for him. He was put in the right hands and turned into a great runner and Derby winner. Now that is a great story.

That was a great story-those guys had the time of their lives with Funnycide. Have you ever heard of Pan Zarita?

Honestly, no. Tell me more.

Pan Zarita was bred in Sweetwater Tx. She raced 150 times, placing 1st 76 times, with 31 2nd place finishes and 21 3rd's. Her sire was a thoroughbred, Abe Frank, her dam a quarter horse, Caddie Griffith. Her most famous race was aginst Joe Blair in 1915. She won the 5/8ths mile in world record time of 1:57 1/5. Here are some of her other times.

220 yards-10 1/5
1/4 mile -21 3/5
3/8 mile -33 2/5
1/2 mile -44 4/5

Foaled in 1910, she raced from 1912 to 1917. She died suddenly that year-I believe from a pnuemonic cause and was buried in the center of the infield of New Orleans Race Track. Some say that she was probably the fastest mare up to 5/8ths of a mile who ever lived. She was a sorrel in color although the only picture I have is in B&W, you may be able to google a picture of her-she had an awesome shoulder!