Zenyatta is pick for Horse of Year

My first prediction for 2011 is this: Zenyatta will win the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year. Why? A tsunami of emotion among Eclipse voters is building behind Zenyatta after her heroic loss to Blame in the Breeders' Cup Classic.

This passion was brewing well before the Classic. An influential bloc of Eastern writers wrote they were voting for Zenyatta regardless of the Classic outcome. Part of that is voter remorse from 2009 when the same people voted for Rachel Alexandra over Zenyatta.

The only criteria for Horse of the Year is that the animal has to race once in North America. That's it. I predict voters will turn the Horse of the Year honor into a lifetime achievement award.

Zenyatta snatched victory from the jaws of defeat time and again like a modern-day Silky Sullivan. She embodied all that is good in horse racing during her 19-race unbeaten streak.

The connections of Blame will be up against it in the popular ballot, even though Blame did something that Rachel Alexandra never had a chance to do: face Zenyatta and beat her on the square.

Last year, Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta deserved to be co-champions. However, Eclipse voters lacked the gumption to try to make that happen. Both horses were undefeated in 2009, but their campaigns were vastly different. The fact they didn't face each other made all arguments moot -- an apples-versus-oranges debate.

This year, a clear measure was Blame and Zenyatta finishing 1-2 in the Classic. I think voters will overlook this fact and vote for the horse that has done the most for racing.

If that interpretation of Horse of the Year comes to pass, I don't have a problem with it. History eventually will place both horses where they respectfully belong.

In reality, Zenyatta was the underdog in the Classic despite being the betting favorite. She carried the weight of expectations on one shoulder and proving naysayers wrong on the other.

Her hating of the kickback from the cuppy Churchill dirt made me wonder. If Zenyatta had had one more race on dirt, outside of Oaklawn Park, would she have handled a unique Churchill surface better? It's something we'll never know.

The sad part of the Zenyatta saga is that it's over. Her bandwagon finally filled up this season. But she has done enough, and she owes us nothing.

A fun hot stove question will be which stallion to mate Zenyatta with. I think the answer is easy: Blame. He's the only male who stood up to her.

Richard Eng's horse racing column is published Friday in the Las Vegas Review-Journal. He can be reached at rich_eng@hotmail.com.