Fabled filly Zenyatta deserves perfect ending
I'm not sure if her father was a mudder or her mother was a mudder or if she loves the slop, but it's probably a good bet Zenyatta would have won Cosmo Kramer some money the past several years and no one would have had to overhear a private conversation to do so.
You know, including the horse.
Which the more I hear and read about, can't even be sure is a horse. More like some flamboyant, legendary creature who downs Guinness with her afternoon snacks, not unlike my late grandmother, bless her crazy Irish soul, who also used to prance about and run around with her tongue out, but that was more about all those pints before noon than prepping for any race.
My knowledge about the sport of kings best can be described as slight, which is to say I very much enjoyed the movie "Seabiscuit" and opening day at Del Mar for all the sights and sounds. Mostly the sights.
Oh, for the days of fabulous sun dresses and flowery hats and the women wearing them
But this is a different type of excellence. It too should be celebrated. Admired. Remembered. Cheered.
The horse most speak about in almost mythical terms tries to cap an unblemished career today, when Zenyatta hopes to reach a retirement of rest, relaxation and all the suds she desires by winning the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.
A victory will make her 20-for-20, a mark of perfection that would place Zenyatta among those flawless sports stories of the 1972 Miami Dolphins and Rocky Marciano and all those flips and springs from Nadia Comaneci.
I hope Zenyatta wins if for no other reason than this: I can't for the life of me see her gathering all the other horses out there in the grass of some pasture and sipping champagne about this time each year, just to rub it in to all the thoroughbreds who don't own such a streak in the modern world of stakes-level racing.
I'm guessing she has too much class to pull a Mercury Morris.
"It's difficult to compare horses from different eras, but to me she is the best female horse of all time," handicapper Bob Ike said. "You've got Secretariat, Man o' War, Spectacular Bid, Affirmed it would be hard to say she is better than those horses.
"But if she pulls it off and goes 20-for-20, it would be unbelievable. Win, lose or draw, she has been a remarkable horse. I just have a feeling that if she is on her 'A' game, they might want to turn her loose those last 100 yards to make sure there is no doubt, to quiet all the naysayers."
Ike speaks of some who just don't completely buy into this fun-loving, hard-drinking specimen, meaning there is even East Coast arrogance when it comes to horse racing, as if their oats are any tastier or paddocks any nicer or Guinness any colder than ours.
There is a feeling back there that because 17 of Zenyatta's 19 wins have come on synthetic surfaces in California, that because she doesn't pack up the saddle and hit the road in her fancy semi-trailer more often to race outside her home state, her record is a tad questionable.
It's nothing more than jealousy, probably from those who still think Red Auberach was a better coach than Phil Jackson. I have to believe Zenyatta, when faced with such nonsense, follows the "Seabiscuit" script, when the movie's narrator said the famous horse looked straight through his trainer as if to say, "What the hell are you looking at? Who do you think you are?"
I like that Zenyatta is a last-second 3-point finisher rather than a run-up-the-score showboat, that most of her wins follow a pattern of dropping to last out of the gates and surveying all the loser horses in front of her and waiting to make her move at the far turn and being OK with winning by a nose or a neck or the length of a beer mug.
Hey, she is 6 now. She has been around the track a few times and knows how to draw a crowd.
That's showmanship. That's excellence.
"To stay unbeaten going on four years is pretty incredible," said Dan Smith, longtime public relations director at Del Mar. "Usually, you're going to get some blips here and there, an injury. But she's a star. She has a personality of her own. She is probably facing the best field she has ever raced against (today). But she's the real deal, no doubt about it."
Admit it. You want to see the old gal win and go out by throwing back that beautiful head of hers and having them pour buckets of Guinness down her throat.
If that's not the perfect ending, what is?
Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard from 2 to 4 p.m. Monday and Thursday on "Monsters of the Midday," Fox Sports Radio 920 AM.
