This past weekend at Santa Anita, when Zenyatta looked for the “impossible” win, most of my local LGBT horse-fan friends were in that crowd, screaming their heads off for this popular favorite. And the ones I know who couldn’t make it to the track were glued to their TVs.
Everything went wrong for Zenyatta in that race. She broke from the gate badly, was visibly unsettled and trailed by 11 lengths till jockey Mike Smith masterfully got her settled. When the field hit the home stretch, she finally got her monster kick rolling…only to have another horse cut in front of her. But she recovered with an mindboggling explosion of speed …and got up to win by a length. She was the first female horse ever to win the Classic at the Breeders Cup world championships.
The big mare not only defeated a loaded field of 12 male champions who qualified from all over the world. She also turned in a heart-stopping performance that the sport will never forget — one that puts her firmly in the history books. The 58,000 fans went absolutely wild. There were so many GO ZENYATTA signs waving that the grandstands looked like a political convention.
Zenyatta is just a horse, right? Why should anybody care about a frikking horse when our country is falling apart and LGBT people are under fire everywhere? Well, some people evidently do see Zenyatta as an inspiration for their own lives…and that includes some of us. After all, we are looking for the “impossible” win too — in marriage and other civil rights.
Whenever the U.S. economy is down and out, horse racing always manages to come up with a “feel good” champion that captures the public imagination and makes people feel that they can win their own battles. During the Great Depression, it was a homely little bay stallion from California named Seabiscuit. Today, in the latest down-and-out time for America, that feel-good horse is a big beautiful bay girl-horse from California named Zenyatta.
Interested readers can go to YouTube and search under “Zenyatta” for reams of footage on her win.
on Nov 11th, 2009 at 10:39 AM
The thing is, people do care about the race horses. It is still a big sport in this country, and brings in a lot of money, even in recession. Horse racing fans, myself included having been born so close to Monmouth Park in NJ, live vicariously through the fact such a strong breed of horse can run down a mile so fast with such a tiny human being on their backs. And in the case of Zenyatta, she is an undefeated mare who left the all-female races to beat this year’s best males. And she didn’t just beat them. She beat them bad. One has to wonder how it would have been had Preakness Stakes winner Rachel Alexandra also raced in the Classic? Would it have been a 1-2 finish for girls over the boys? This is just proof that girls can achieve just as much as the boys. It also gives people something to take their minds off of all the bad stuff going on in the world, just as other sports do.
on Nov 11th, 2009 at 4:55 PM
Absolutely right! I love that horse, and was there on Saturday to cheer her on. I haven’t figured out why a horse should be so inspirational, but she just is. She just keeps going, no matter how many obstacles are in her way. And, she does it with such obvious joy.
I wish all of you in the LGBT community luck in pursuing equal rights for all. Perhaps we can adopt Zenyatta as our mascot???
on Nov 11th, 2009 at 6:10 PM
LGBT horse-fan friends
How did you know the horse was LGBT?
on Nov 11th, 2009 at 6:37 PM
<<<>>>
I didn’t. I just know that my horse-fan friends are LGBT.
on Nov 12th, 2009 at 11:09 AM
To John McClelland — The Zenyatta vs. Rachel Alexandra debate is a hot one, and I admit there are pluses and minuses for both horses. And that’s part of the fun of this sport…debating all the variables.
To those who insist that Zenyatta raced only against second-rate fields before the BC — well, she beat the best mares and fillies in the world last year, in the BC Ladies’ Classic. That’s hardly a field of “suspect quality.”
A 1-2 finish between Z and RA in the Classic would have had fans even more hyperventilated than they were! Unfortunately RA’s owners have issues with the Pro Ride track, so we may never see this filly run at Santa Anita, or in the BC.
Personally, I’m glad that RA is a younger horse. With Zenyatta retiring, I hope that RA’s owners will race her as a 4-year-old…so we can have another “Year of the Girl.” There are plenty of other big stakes races for her to win, both in the U.S. and abroad. I’d love to see our good female horses traveling more.
on Nov 12th, 2009 at 6:14 PM
I was firmly in the Rachel Alexandra camp before the Breeders’ Cup. Her three year-old campaign has been one for the ages. She won five straight grade one races, including three against males. One of those was in the Woodward Stakes against older males, becoming the first three year-old filly to win an open grade one route race since they adopted the grading system. Overall she won eight stakes races, seven of them graded, on seven different racetracks in six states! In any other year, there would be little doubt that she is the Horse of the Year.
That being said, Zenyatta’s Classic was breathtaking! I had my doubts about her going into the race due to the fact that she had been beating up on the same fillies in southern California over and over again. As they made their way into the far turn I really thought she had no shot but as soon as she got to the outside in the stretch there was no stopping her. It’s crazy to think that she has gone undefeated throughout her career while maintaining this last-to-first running style that she has. She truly is one of the greatest (if not THE greatest) mares to ever race.
I definitely wouldn’t want to be voting for HOTY. In my eyes there’s very little separating the two so I’m fine with either one of them winning.
Luckily for us, the Breeders’ Cup is at Churchill Downs next year, which is a regular “dirt” track. Rachel Alexandra has been very successful over this oval, winning the Kentucky Oaks there the day before the Derby by 20 lengths. Here’s hoping for back-to-back Classic victories for fillies in 2010!
on Nov 14th, 2009 at 6:12 PM
Thanks for the post! Ken pretty much said it all. Rachel Alexandra’s season was super spectacular, and I was also firmly in her camp.
But Zenyatta blew me away and here I am a week later – a week ago it was about 35 minutes to post time! – still scouring the internet searching for the latest stories about the Classic.
I can’t choose between them for Horse of the Year. I want them both to win. Both have been so inspirational and it’s so great to know that the two best horses in the country are girls!
Rachel Alexandra will be back next year and I expect her to take the Classic on her home track! Let’s hope Zenyatta’s connections keep her in training – there has been no official retirement statement yet – and that these two keep amazing us next year.
For now, I’m glad I was able to take in their brilliance, and I’m glad that they came home safe and sound.