Looking for a way to Humiliate Your Horse? Have it Race Goldikova

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, @AndyDisco on Twitter


Goldikova, the European version of Zenyatta or Rachel Alexandra kicked more male horse hiney today in England in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes.




With her being a miler and Zenyatta and Rachel preferring more of a Classic Distance, I wish they could compromise and race in a 1 1/16th or 1 1/8th race, kinda like how Donovan Bailey and Michael Johnson raced in that 150 meter race.

I digressed, though. The point is Goldikova is awesome.







That's how I roll.

Oh Yee-uh Yee-uh Yee-uh

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Rachel Alexandra and Rachel Alexandra both race tomorrow. Separately. They are both prepping for the MONUMENTAL showdown in the Apple Blossom next month. Zenyatta hasn't raced since she shook up da worl' in the Breeders Cup Classic in November. Rachel hasn't race since she nearly blew the roof of the historic wooden Saratoga in early September at the Woodford Memorial.

My dream has always been: at the same time Rachel Alexandra races Zenyatta in a race with other horses (i.e. not a match race), while Manny Pacquiao boxes Floyd Mayweather in the infield's backstretch turn, while at the far turn is a steel cage match in a 100 yd. x 100 yd. steel cage that is 50% water 50% land that contains a lion, tiger, orca and a great white shark.

You have to dream big. You HAVE to.





That's how I roll.

Congratulations, Rachel Alexandra

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


2009 Horse of the Year.

She received 13% more votes than female foe Zenyatta for Horse of the Year Honors. Zenyatta's win in the Classic was legendary, but she won on her home surface against a comparatively weak Classic field (especially since the best horses were not used synthetics). Zenyatta really had nothing to lose in that race either. Rachel on the other hand, raced against boys in Grade 1's, won a leg of the triple crown and beat the winners of the other two. In doing so, she put a lot on the line multiple times and had plenty to lose.











That's how I roll.

Most Awesome Event Possible

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

After reading about Floyd Mayweather's drubbing of Juan Manuel Marquez, I instantly hoped he'd fight Manny Pacquiao, like I think everyone else did. Then it reminded me of a subject I have never mentioned on here before- that I hope Rachel Alexandra races Zenyatta. Then I thought they should combine the two- the boxing match could take place in the infield, and betwixt rounds the horse race could run. That got me thinking- that could be the begining to the best sporting event possible. So I tried to think of other things to add to the festitivities. Since I don't want the name of the event to end in -palooza, I should probably call "TR Slyder Presents: Awesome"

- A barbecue cookoff could also take place in the infield (down wind from the boxers and after the horse race)

- Complimentary bacon and alcoholic beverages

- Everyone working the concession stands and all ushers are orangutans or chimpanzees.

- Free elephant rides

-Rod Blagojevich and Bernie Madoff dunk tank

- Celebrity prop bets. For instance Nickelback would promise to quit if Mayweather wins, and if Pacquiao wins, Megan Fox stops trying so hard. If Zenyatta wins, The Hills goes off the air, and if Rachel Alexandra wins, Billy Bush murders himself. If the two underdogs both win, Heidi and Spencer have a duel and draw at 15 paces- each shall be armed with dirty bombs that is lethal from 400 yards and in.

- Free corndogs for the kids

- Mike Ditka is the MC of the event, with Tony Sinclair as co-MC.


- Brendan Fraser and Frankie Muniz have a knife fight a la the Beat It video, on the Pacquiao/Mayweather undercard. Sanjaya can be ring girl.

- Tents will feature offshoots of Guitar Hero like Tuba Hero, Recorder Hero, and Ukelele Hero.

- Chesley Sullenberger, Ron Santo, the inventor of the Wienermobile, John Madden, Bob Knight, Joey Chestnut and Harvey Pack will be milling around the premise mingling while dressed as superheroes.

- Viking and Pirate Costumes encouraged (especially for people with jheri curls)

- Macarena every hour, on the hour

- Break Dancing lessons

- Whispy facial hair and jheri curl petting zoos





















Amen.













That's how I roll.

You Just Don't get it, do you Breeder's Cup? New Rachel Alexandra v. Zenyatta Possible Development

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


Too little, too late. You are broke and offering money you don't have when this could have been avoided just as easily as it was created. Throwing more money at multi-millionaire to race his arguably-overworked horse over a disadvantageous surface is pipe dream.

The Breeders' Cup executives are bad at their jobs.







I'm T.R. Slyder, and that's how you Tangueray.

Horse Racing Yoda is on my Side Regarding Rachel v. Zenyatta and the Breeder's Cup Being Morons

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter


It's nice to see when someone intelligent agrees with someone you believe. This was plagiaraized from the DailyRacingForm.com

Female showdown a fitting scenario

By Andrew Beyer

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - After her electrifying photo-finish victory in the Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, Rachel Alexandra should be entitled to rest on her laurels. The filly has campaigned steadily since February, racing at seven different tracks and winning all eight of her starts. With three triumphs over males, she has virtually locked up the Horse of the Year title. Owner Jess Jackson and trainer Steve Asmussen would be happy to give her a breather until she resumes racing in 2010.

Rachel Alexandra, however, still has one piece of unfinished business: a confrontation with Zenyatta, the champion 5-year-old mare who has never been beaten in 12 career starts and has unleashed explosive last-to-first rallies in most of them. Almost everyone in the sport wants to see a race between two of the greatest female Thoroughbreds of all time. The New York Racing Association would like to host the showdown on Oct. 3. But a Rachel Alexandra-Zenyatta race will probably never happen. Partisans of each horse blame the other's camp for being unsporting, but the real blame belongs to the Breeders' Cup organization.

The Breeders' Cup chose Santa Anita in Arcadia, Calif., and its synthetic track as the site for its event in 2008 and 2009, and last year's results produced an inescapable conclusion: Synthetic tracks are very different from dirt. The horses who won over Santa Anita's Pro-Ride surface were either proven synthetic-track runners (such as Zenyatta) or turf specialists. Top horses with good form only on dirt didn't win. The highest-profile loser was Curlin. Jackson had been hesitant to run over synthetics, and his views on the subject hardened after the defeat. So when Jackson bought Rachel Alexandra in the spring and watched her develop into a superstar, he adamantly declared he would not race her on "plastic," his derisive word for synthetic surfaces. The Breeders' Cup would not be on her agenda.

For Zenyatta, by contrast, back-to-back Breeders' Cups in her home state were a blessing. The mare can run on dirt or synthetics - she scored a smashing Grade 1 stakes win over Oaklawn Park's dirt in April 2008. But since then she has not ventured from California, where she won the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic last year, except for a planned start at Churchill Downs that was spoiled by an off track. With the Cup back at Santa Anita, trainer John Shirreffs and owner Jerry Moss decided to stay at home for all of 2009 and aim for the Breeders' Cup again - either the Ladies' Classic or against males in the Classic. As for a meeting with Rachel Alexandra, Moss said in a recent teleconference, "The Breeders' Cup was created for this kind of a circumstance. That's the spot where champions are made."

A Rachel Alexandra-Zenyatta race at Santa Anita, however, would not necessarily be a meaningful test. A victory by Zenyatta might prove only that she is a synthetic-track specialist and Rachel isn't. The New York Racing Association sought to have this showdown in the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct. 3. Betfair, the parent company of the TVG racing network, offered to add $400,000 to the purse, making it a $1 million race if Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta both show up. The Zenyatta camp evinced some interest, but Shirreffs was concerned about sending his mare into NYRA's mandatory prerace detention barn, and he is reluctant to change his long-planned all-California racing schedule for her. Yet Zenyatta could never find better circumstances for a race on dirt against Rachel Alexandra.

Of all the dirt tracks in America, none is more conducive to Zenyatta's come-from-behind style than Belmont Park, with its sweeping turns and long stretch. Zenyatta has conclusively proved her ability to run on dirt - her performance at Oaklawn was one of the best of her career - so Belmont would be the fairest possible site for the confrontation.

Zenyatta is a fresh horse, after running only three times against soft opposition this season, while Rachel Alexandra has been through a grind, running eight times in the last seven months. After earning a career-best Beyer Speed Figure in the Haskell Stakes of 116, she recorded a 109 at Saratoga on Saturday. Her form may be on the downgrade, while Zenyatta could very well be pointing toward a peak effort. Advantage: Zenyatta.

Rachel Alexandra is the horse with the most to lose. She could go to the sidelines tomorrow with the Horse of the Year award locked up. The only way she could lose the title is to lose to Zenyatta. Although Jackson recognizes that Rachel Alexandra is ready for a rest, he said, "If Zenyatta were to come to the Beldame, that would direct us to that."

Jackson has been the consummate sportsman in his management of Rachel Alexandra, picking tough spots such as the Woodward so that the filly can show how good she is. And it would be extraordinarily sporting for him to risk Horse of the Year honors in the Beldame. Meanwhile, Moss and Shirreffs have so far avoided any serious challenges this season for their mare. They have avoided racing against males. They have acted as if their main goal is not to lose and not to jeopardize the mare's perfect record. If that was their aim, they could have retired her last season. But if they are in this game because they like the excitement of the sport, how could they resist a showdown with Rachel Alexandra?

(c) 2009, The Washington Post

see also:

Let's see if Zenyatta "Forfeits" This Race- my Prosaic Tryptich About Rachel Alexandra V. Zenyatta

My Socratic Homage to the Breeder's Cup re: Rachel v. Zenyatta


My Proof that the Breeder's Cup has lost its mind







I'm T.R. Slyder, and that's how you Tangueray.

After Watching the Alabama Stakes, maybe Zenyatta is now the #2 Contender to Rachel Alexandra.

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

With Zenyatta's diminishing margins of victory, maybe she should have to go through Careless Jewel to earn her shot at Rachel Alexandra. Watch her victory in the Alabama Stakes at Saratoga today. Just sayin.

Looks like Zenyatta's "The ball is in my court- come and get me" stance might be over. Those on the East Coast sure hope you aren't just the female version of Lava Man (Lava Girl?). You aren't, are you? See ya in the Beldame.

I'm T.R. Slyder, and that's how you Tangueray.

Let's see if Zenyatta "Forfeits" This Race- my Prosaic Tryptich About Rachel Alexandra V. Zenyatta

By: T.R. Slyder, TRSlyder@yahoo.com, AndyDisco on Twitter

Earlier in the month I sounded off about a tweet sent out by the author of the West Coast horse racing website Pick4AndWin. The Tweet alleged that if Rachel Alexandra did not run in the Breeder's Cup against Zenyatta that it should be considered a "forfeit" by Rachel. As my link attests, I disagreed with that viewpoint.

Now the tables have turned. Kind of. TVG and BetFair.com have agreed to add 400k to the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park on Oct.3 if both Rachel and Zenyatta participate. With the added 400k, the purse now stands at a cool $1,000,000. This is of course, the inverse of what the Breeder's Cup is offering to Rachel. Rachel, a dirt horse, will not be running in the Breeder's Cup Ladies Classic (formerly known as the Distaff). because that race will be run over a synthetic surface on the other side of the country from where she's based. The cross-country trip isn't much of a deterrent for Rachel's connections, but the surface change certainly is.

The offer is on the table Zenyatta.

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Another Reason for Rachel to not Face Zenyatta in the Ladies Classic

While I wrote an allegorical article mentioning why Rachel has no obligation to race Zenyatta on a synthetic surface, I recently thought of another. What makes Zenyatta's connections think that Rachel Alexandra would even race in the Ladies Classic? Why not THE Classic? Afterall, Rachel Alexandra has the highest Beyer Speed Figure of the year, she beat the KY Derby winner (in the Preakness), she won the Preakness, and she beat the Belmont winner (in the Haskell). She also won two Grade 1 filly races by a combined 40 lengths. This year also has a relatively weak crop of older male foes to oppose Rachel in the Classic compared to recent years that featured Curlin, Saint Liam, Flower Alley, Bernardini, Invasor, and Ghostzapper. With the purse for the Classic a $5 mil., and the Ladies Classic at $2 mil, why would Rachel take a 60% pay cut to beat a horse that she is clearly superior to? I don't hear any AA baseball teams telling Albert Pujols that if he were a REAL baseball player he'd leave his contract with the Cardinals and try his hand for their farm team for 40 cents on the dollar- while playing on a new surface.

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The East Coast Aint Got No Love for Zenyatta and Jon Shirreffs?

This analogy will probably alienate some of my zero readers, but I'm gonna write it anyway because I think the analogy stands up- there just aren't many people with gangster rap knowledge and horse racing knowledge that will be able to verify its accuracy.

In 1995 the East Coast versus West Coast rap feud started to heat up. It heated up at the Source Awards when Suge Knight took a very thinly veiled dig at Puff Daddy, and was later accelerated when Snoop Dogg (at the :42 mark) sounded off about the he East Coast aint got no love for Snoop Dogg





I saw an interview with Snoop a few years ago where he explained his diatribe. He said that as a West Coast rapper, he always held the East Coast rappers in reverential esteem- rap was invented on the East coast, and they dominated the rap scene for years until NWA came onto the scene on the West Coast. Snoop said that as a burgeoning rapper in a relatively newer rap market, he strove to impress the rap pioneers and their successors- any time an East Coast rapper came out west, they were always shown plenty of respect and appreciation for coming out, but the inverse was not true. When Snoop and others went out East, they were not afforded the same respect and were treated with relative derision. This lack of respect hurt Snoop's feelings and fueled his animosity, manifesting itself in the rant seen above. In short, Snoop felt that those on the East Coast were provincial snobs who looked down their noses at what they considered perversions of a form of entertainment they're credited with inventing.

Sound familiar? I think a lot of that is reflected in the Rachel Alexandra v. Zenyatta debate. West Coasters may feel slighted that Zenyatta isn't as gushed-over as Rachel despite an undefeated record. Fans of east coast (not capitalized since it's not part a rap feud) horse racing take great pleasure in deriding not only the "plastic" running surfaces in California, but also the small fields in so many of their races.

While the coastal feud is nothing new to horse racing, the "racing surface feud" is. I think many Zenyatta supporters (i.e. west coast horse racing fans) feel that Rachel is turning up her nose at an inferior horse, over an inferiors surface, in an inferior race (Ladies Classic v. The Classic) on an inferior coast. It isn't that Rachel's connections don't want her to run on a surface alien unto her, it's that she's being a snob. This provincial upstart has taken away the nation's collective thunder for Zenyatta, who west coasters feel is the superior race horse. Westerners may feel that the snobby old cigar-chomping, pocket-watch-toting east coast guard can't be bothered by Zenyatta- an ok horse but one that runs on a phony surface that wasn't the one THEY invented horses to race upon.

Am I a secretly hoping for the 2009 Eclipse Awards to turn into the 1995 Source Awards? No. I'm publicly hoping they do:


Rachel's connections: If you don't want your horses to be races all on a plastic surface, all in 4-horse fields, and all in front of a martini-drinking crowd that can't read a Racing Form- come to Saratoga and Belmont!

Zenyatta's connections rebuttle (while wearing the colors of Zenyatta's owner on a scarf around their necks): Y'all aint got no love for Zenyatta and Jon Shirreffs??!!! *expletive* *expletive* *expletive*






I'm T.R. Slyder, and that's how you Tangueray.