By Thomas Chambers
You try to be a fan.
They look the other way on corked bats and steroids to produce ultimately meaningless home runs. They put out the yellow flag to keep the “stock” cars together lest a master mechanic set up his ride to run and hide. They sanction one woods as big as a Wiffle golf club to make sure you don’t swing and miss.
And now they’re seriously considering eliminating weights in the Santa Margarita Invitational, a Grade 1 handicap race Zenyatta will use as a prep for her April 9 Apple Blossom Invitational showdown with Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra at Oaklawn Park.
God forbid Zenyatta loses a race under normal, competitive conditions.
You have to remember not to blame the animal. Trainer John Shireffs and owners Ann and Jerry Moss coddled her by keeping her at home on the synthetic California circuit for most of her 14-0 career, lucking out in having her Breeders’ Cup Classic on her familiar Santa Anita course.
She won that race and the hoary tradition of overhype was throttled up by a California racing community that immediately declared her the greatest race horse to ever look through a bridle. They dissed the great Lady’s Secret by rechristening her namesake race the Zenyatta, and held not one but two “farewell” days at Santa Anita and Hollywood in a cheap attempt to muster a little on-track attendance. All while she continued to train all the way through the holidays and into 2010.
A handicap race is a time-honored method of assigning more or less weight in a field of horses in an effort to even out the competition. More-accomplished, winning horses get more weight while younger or up-and-coming horses get less. Trainers, understandably, don’t like it, and have been fairly vocal about it in recent years.
Zenyatta might have commanded at least 129 pounds and probably more like 130 or 133, with 135 being possible. The worst part of Santa Anita’s plan is that they announced it so shortly before the Santa Margarita, a race that has been run annually since Santa Anita opened in 1934.
“I’ve always been a traditionalist, but the trend in the industry seems to be to get away from handicaps in Grade 1 races,” [Santa Anita director of racing Mike] Harlow said. “We’re certainly looking at it here.”
My mother used to admonish me “if all the other kids jumped off a bridge, would you do it too?”
You know the folks in La La Land wouldn’t do anything to get Zenyatta beat before The Big Race, but this manipulation is just blatant. And if you’re looking at the bottom line, who’s going to bet on the race if it’s set up for Zenyatta to win? Not me, that’s for sure. Have they been smoking some of that ProRide Zenyatta has won so many races on?
For the record, Fair Grounds created a March 13 race, the $200,000 New Orleans Ladies Stakes (fillies and mares, 1-1/16 miles) for Rachel Alexandra to run in to prep for the April showdown. That’s done all the time. Arlington Park created the Arlington Invitational for Secretariat in June 1973. Finger Lakes added $50,000 to the Wadsworth Memorial Handicap in 2007 to lure Funny Cide for his final performance in his own backyard. But they didn’t pillage a 75-year-old race tradition like the Santa Margarita.
I believe it tarnishes Zenyatta’s career legacy and creates a mountain of bad karma. None of it is her fault. If she only knew what her peeps were doing, she’d disband that posse.
Derby Doo
I’ve purposely laid quite low as we methodically make our way up the pyramid of preps for the Kentucky Derby. As I’ve said, it’s a circus of a race where your primary handicapping tool just might be a dart board. I still don’t think Mine That Bird should have won last year and I still wouldn’t bet on him, even today. He hasn’t done much since.
But this week we have a variety of races that will be interesting to watch as several three-year-olds get in their second or third or more races of the season on the Road to the Roses.
* Gulfstream hosts the Grade II Fountain of Youth Stakes, a big prep for the big prep, the Florida Derby. Nick Zito’s Jackson Bend is the morning-line favorite. Keep an eye on Buddy’s Saint, Eskendereya and Aikenite. We’ll also see D’ Funnybone, A Little Warm and Wildcat Frankie in the lesser, 7-furlong Hutcheson for three-year-olds. Veterans Courageous Cat, Mambo Meister (also cross-entered in the Tampa Bay Stakes at Tampa, check his GPS) and Jet Propulsion hit the turf with older horses in the Canadian Turf Stakes.
* A big stakes day at Fair Grounds features the Risen Star Stakes (Grade II). Ron the Greek goes off favored as he tries to parlay his Jan. 23 win in the LeComte. He runs into Discreetly Mine, Drosselmeyer in full put-up-or-shut-up mode, and Stay Put. I’ll take Tempted to Tapit all day at the morning line 8-1.
In other races of note, Illinois-bred Giant Oak is cross-entered in both the Grade III Fair Grounds Handicap (9 furlongs on the turf) and the Grade III Mineshaft Handicap at 8.5 furlongs on the dirt. He’ll hit the dirt if the turf is soft. In the latter, he’d face 2009 standouts General Quarters and Friesan Fire, who flashed his old prowess in the Louisiana Handicap on Jan. 23. Devil May Care is the 8-5 M/L favorite in the Grade III Silverbulletday for three-year-old fillies.
* Oaklawn will try again after most of the Presidents Day card Monday was wiped out by bad weather. The wide open Southwest Stakes (Grade III) will include Dublin, Dryfly, Domonation, probable favorite Conveyance, and Mission Impazible.
* At Tampa Bay, we’ll see the 2010 debut of Arlington Million winner and turf wonder Gio Ponti in the Tampa Bay Stakes. Probable challengers will include Karelian and Rahystrada.
* Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Dancing in Silks and Bob Black Jack are the big names in the Grade II San Carlos Handicap (7 furlongs, main track) at Santa Anita Saturday.
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Thomas Chambers is the Beachwood’s man on the rail. He brings you TrackNotes every Friday. He welcomes your comments.
Posted on February 19, 2010