Feb 112010
It would appear that an agreement has been reached that means Zenyatta v. Rachel Alexandra is going to happen. At Oaklawn Park. In the Apple Blossom. On April 9th.
I wish I could say I was thrilled. Because I am. I’ve become one of those people who believe this is key to the sport’s survival. Lord knows, we aren’t the best at marketing ourselves: the crown jewel of the game is a trophy we’ve virtually bred out of the realm of ever happening again.
So, barring the first Triple Crown winner in 32 years kicking off a campaign in May – we’ve really left the hopes and dreams of a business that’s (beyond seemingly) struggling in the hooves of the fairer sex.
But back to this race on April 9th: my problems are few and are probably quashed rather easily…
1. It’s a Friday: the following day has massive Derby implications, so I understand the “using the Apple Blossom to kick off a major weekend” approach … but did we learn nothing from having the Kentucky Oaks on Bravo! last year? Ratings sucked – and that was with a ton of promotion.
2. Timing: By pushing the race back 6 days, it allows Z to ship later and Rachel to get one last work in – woohoo – Asmussen’s camp couldn’t have thought of this while she was jogging through January and bumped up her work schedule a tad? It’s just suspect.
3. Money: these are two of the wealthiest non-oil-rich-nation-ruling owners in the game and they needed $5 million reasons to get their girls together? Something tells me that money could be better suited elsewhere in the sport – like marketing funds for failing tracks.
And I have one last final initial thought on this matchup. One of my all time favorite sayings in this sport is that if we already knew the outcome, they wouldn’t have to open the gates and run the darn thing. While this is setting up to be the match race of the 21st century, you know there’s going to be a ton of people who just want to get in for a) history (“remember when I ran Nelly Nag against the two best fillies of my time?”) or b) purse money (the field is capped at 10 and last place gets $100k).
So what happens when some local yokel goes out and sets some suicidal fractions, thereby cooking Rachel’s goose up front and killing Zenyatta’s ability to close?
Don’t think it can’t happen: we’ve all seen way worse be attempted (Guadal Canal in the 2008 Belmont) and actually happen (Mine That Bird in the 2009 Kentucky Derby). And it would be the equivalent of 100 turntables halting records simultaneously or dropping 100 bottles of wine on brand new white carpeting.
I really do want April 9th to happen for the good of the game. I just don’t want us to be sitting trackside on April 10th, saying “the two best athletes in our game just got beat by a $15k claimer (and I don’t mean along the Lava Man lines).”
A 32-year drought would be looking mighty good.
