17
Posted Under: Zenyatta
As she returned to the winner’s circle after recording her 17th consecutive victory in yesterday’s Grade I Vanity Handicap at Hollywood, Zenyatta paused for a moment before the stands. The 12,000-plus in attendance rose as one to greet her, and in that moment, she looked like nothing so much as a queen regarding her adoring subjects.
This, then, is what racing perfection looks like: a towering, sleekly muscled mare who does nothing but win. And yesterday, she etched her name anew in the racing pantheon, recording her 17th consecutive victory and surpassing all-timers Cigar and Citation. Of those wins, 15 have come in Grade I or Grade II company, the last seven straight at the highest level.
If love means never having to say you’re sorry, 17 means never having to employ an excuse.
It means that unfavorable pace scenarios don’t matter. It means that ill-timed rides are shrugged off, difficult trips ignored. It means overcoming sluggish works and rare off days. It means toting 129 pounds when your rivals carry much less and still defeating them.
Seventeen means winning the Apple Blossom by four-plus under wraps. It also means recording a stunning final eighth of 11 and 2/5 seconds to nip St. Trinians in the Vanity. It means overcoming a world of trouble to win the Santa Margarita, just getting up to win the Hirsch, and clocking a sub-48 second last half-mile to beat some of the best horses in training in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Some few benighted critics have remained unmoved. They dismiss the competition, or her times, or her speed figures; they miss the point.
In the long run, petty grievances won’t matter. What does matter is what has always mattered in racing. As the great Tesio put it, the selective breeding that has created the modern Thoroughbred depends “not on experts, technicians, or zoologists, but on a piece of wood: the winning post of the Epsom Derby.” And while we in the United States may not be moved by Epsom, the elusive dream of breeding a winner continues to drive the game; the winning post is racing’s raison d’etre.
The list of horses which have not win 17 consecutive races outside of state-bred company is long and varied: it is the history of the American Thoroughbred.
Zenyatta and her winning streak, on the other hand, now comprise a list of one.
And so the queen paused to regard her subjects, then moved towards the winner’s circle itself. Track announcer Vic Stauffer intoned that Hollywood Park is her home, but that is true only in a narrow, technical sense.
She paused again at the entrance to the circle and looked around. She knew exactly where she was, and it was where she wanted to be, where she belonged. For Zenyatta, home is not a racetrack. Home is a wood post, arrived at before the others; home is a circle, filled with happy people. Home is a spot in front of the crowd, showering her with adulation.
And now home is a spot, alone, in the racing history books.
Reader Comments
Not to belittle what is indeed an outstanding achievement in the annals of racing, but the phrase “the last seven straight at the highest level” is almost satirical given the competition she faced in most of these inflated F&M G1s, isn’t it?
I mention it because phrases like “surpassing all-timers Cigar and Citation” imply that there is some comparable standard here when there clearly isn’t. Those are just 3 numerically outstanding bits of trivia for 3 of many great racehorses.
Federico Tesio specifically mentioned that place and time (Epsom, Derby) because the only true measure of a racehorse’s greatness was and is not who crosses the line first the most, but who proves their class when the best compete against each other (and then does it repeatedly). Winning 17 in a row in graded stakes IS a huge feat in itself, but not something that “surpasses” anything.
Frank,
That was a fantastic piece…I don’t care what Malcer had to say. You knew someone would come calling with his statement. You wrote:
“Some few benighted critics have remained unmoved. They dismiss the competition, or her times, or her speed figures; they miss the point.”
I wonder how many “top class” horses CIGAR defeated…DEVIL HIS DUE (11-for-41, just over 25% win rate) twice, SOUL OF THE MATTER (Only 1 G.1 win, Super Derby), WEKIVA SPRINGS (only two of 10 career wins in G.1’s). Add to that runners-up TINNERS WAY, L’CARRIERE, SILVER GOBLIN, UNACCOUNTED FOR, PRIMITIVE HALL, POOR BUT HONEST, STAR STANDARD, PRIDE OF BURKAAN, and PERSONAL MERIT…not exactly a “who’s who” of American Turf annals.
LOUIS QUATORZE (Only 1 G.1 win, Preakness S.), DARE AND GO (broke the win streak, only 7-for-22, 2 G.1’s), and ALPHABET SOUP (only G.1 win was the BC Classic upset, 10-for-24)defeated him. SKIP AWAY won the only time they met in the Jockey Club Gold Cup.
ZENYATTA, like CIGAR, must be credited for winning consistently as you wrote so eloquently. They both lined up against whoever was brave enough to run against them. ZENYATTA fittingly is above all as an undefeated 17 and counting!
I could not describe her race yesterday in words and thankfully had pictures to substitute.
Thanks for your words. No one could have fashioned a better tribute.
Thanks for checking in, guys.
Rob - thanks for the kind words. I appreciate the research you’ve done; now that you mention it, I do recall folks at the time belittling the competition. Cigar also ran in two allowance races and four (I think) ungraded events.
Meanwhile, Citation ran in three allowances during his streak, had a walkover in the Pim. Special, and ran in a total of eight races in which he faced four or fewer rivals.
Which gets to my point, Malcer — that what is satirical is the ongoing refusal to recognize by some (not sure if you’re among them) that this is a truly great racehorse. She wins when it’s a top-class field, and when it’s a short and easy one; she wins when it’s hard and when it’s easy, when she’s got her ‘A’ game and when she doesn’t.
As for “numerical trivia,” I disagree. Is Dimaggio’s 56-game hitting streak numerical trivia? Gretzky’s four 200-point seasons? Secretariat’s 31-length win? No, they are achievements that help to measure the greatness of the individual. Zenyatta’s 17 wins are similar (as are Cigar’s and Citation’s 16) — accomplishments that help us put in perspective the greatness of these horses. The greatness of these horses isn’t defined by the streaks — they’d still be great even with a loss or two dropped in — but it is, perhaps, described by them.
Rob:
I’m afraid that if you had read more carefully you’d have noticed that you did, well, “miss the point”. I’m entirely aware that Cigar didn’t beat Secretariat and Eclipse 16 times in a row, my point was that while winning many races in a row at any level is always an accomplishment, the implication that 17 wins in races a,b,c etc. is greater than 16 wins in races x,y,z etc. is arbitrary. Simple question: did you consider Citation and Cigar the two greatest (American) horses of all time before the Apple Blossom? If, like most racing fans, you had rated Secretariat, Kelso, Man O’War or Count Fleet higher than both of them, then obviously number of consecutive wins isn’t the key.
Frank,
Re Gretzky, DiMaggio: yes and no. Such numbers are indicative of an outstanding player and the ability to deliver at a very consistent level (both true for Z’s 17 too), but no matter whom of the two you find ‘greater’, I don’t think you’d accept that DiMaggio was better than Babe Ruth because he has the 56 number. And four 200-plus seasons for Gretzky does not automatically make him better than some hypothetical player who had four 170 seasons playing for a weaker team and working more in defense.
I’d rather see the undoubtedly great Zenyatta lose two of her next three against the best America has to offer than praise the number 20 after she has won several more races in that she clearly should win.
Sidenote: if “whoever was brave enough” happened to be male, they had exactly one chance to stop Zenyatta’s streak. Here’s hoping that, with the magical number now accomplished, her connections finally begin searching for challenges. And when she retires, maybe she’ll have promoted the sport as much as possible and draws more than 12.000.
Seems to me, Malcer, that you’re going to a place I did not go in your comments. I don’t maintain that Zenyatta is greater than Cigar, say, because she has won more consecutive races, just as, to use your example, I don’t claim that the Clipper was better than Ruth b/c of the hitting streak. I merely claim that Zenyatta is a great racehorse, that this streak now stands alone among winning streaks, and that this streak is a great accomplishment. When I said she surpassed C & C, I meant it literally - she now has more consecutive victories than they do — and not (necessarily) in the sense of being higher on Mount Olympus.
Fair enough.