Horse Betting World

Zenyatta is Deserving of Horse of Year Honors

By Mike Dempsey

Zenyatta lost her last race on the track, but managed to win her last race with the voters, taking down the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year on Monday.

The mare garnered 128 votes to 102 for Blame, with Goldikova earning five first place votes.

After being the runner up to Curlin in 2008 and Rachel Alexandra in 2009, owners Jerry and Ann Moss looked shocked when Zenyatta’s name was announced in Miami Beach on Monday night.

Did the voters get it right?

Blame did beat Zenyatta in their only meeting, a head separating the pair in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) at Churchill Downs in November.

That seemed at the time to settle it, but it was hard to imagine Zenyatta being the runner up for Horse of the Year three years in a row.

How can the Horse of the Decade not be Horse of the Year at least once?

How can Blame defeat the mare and not earn the honor?

Zenyatta’s body of work in 2010 was impressive. She won five consecutive Grade 1 races, then missed against the boys in the Classic by just a head.

Her detractors note the female division was very weak in 2010, and perhaps she should have taken on the boys before November.

Blame had a solid year, winning three Grade 1 races, the Stephen Foster Handicap, the Whitney Handicap, and the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The colt also won the William Donald Schaeffer (G3) at Pimlico and was second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1) to loose on the lead Haynesfield.

Eclipse voters are not given any guidelines on how they should vote. The three voting blocs are the Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters, and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association.

The National Thoroughbred Writers and Broadcasters had Zenyatta by a 71-49 margin, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association vote was 36-15 for Zenyatta, while the employees of The Daily Racing Form were in Blame’s corner by a 38-21 vote.

The Daily Racing Form voters seemed to stick to who was better on the track, and that was Blame, at least by a very small margin.

The other two voting blocs seemed to be voting for who was better in the grand scheme of things, and there was no doubt Zenyatta was the star of 2010.

She brought out the fans wherever she raced, got the attention of 60 Minutes and Oprah, and was a sensation in the world of social networking.

Those who thought Blame should win the award were not happy, and horse racing forums lit up with criticism of the voting.

One poster on a leading horse racing forum wrote, “In nearly 40 years of following horse racing, last night’s HOY selection was one of my biggest disappointments.”

I think that is a bit extreme.

Like it or not, the star of horse racing in 2010 was Zenyatta. The sport suffers enough letdowns, and at least on Monday night, the evening ended on a happy note.

Team Zenyatta gave us three years of excitement, and it was good to see the mare go out a winner.

2010 Eclipse Awards winners:

Horse of the Year: Zenyatta
Two-year-old male: Uncle Mo
Two-year-old female: Awesome Feather
Three-year-old male: Lookin At Lucky
Three-year-old female: Blind Luck
Older male: Blame
Older female: Zenyatta
Turf male: Gio Ponti
Turf female: Goldikova
Male sprinter: Big Drama
Female sprinter: Dubai Majesty
Steeplechase: Slip Away
Apprentice jockey: Omar Moreno
Jockey: Ramon Dominguez
Trainer: Todd Pletcher
Owner: WinStar Farm
Breeder: Adena Springs