In the spirit of March Madness, we are conducting a little experiment to determine how racing fans would evaluate the “best”, “greatest” or “most popular” (or any other criteria you think is applicable) horse of the last 5 or so years. Think of this as the “People’s Choice Awards” for racing. Use whatever criteria you think best determines which horses advance from round to round. Let us know how you arrived at your conclusions. How it works: Each day from March 16 through the end of the month, we will feature one matchup. We will post career specifics and some highlight races on our site to help you in your handicapping. Then you the fans will vote– favorite the tweet if choosing horse A, retweet if selecting horse B. Voting windows will close by 10:00 p.m. each night. The horse with the most votes will advance to the next round.
Here is the updated Finals Bracket.
This is it. The whole enchilada. The big one. The internet has come to a complete stop, and is merely counting down the minutes and hours until 10:00 pm eastern time when the winner will be determined. The matchup is no surprise — its Zenyatta vs. Wise Dan. The two most dominant racehorses of the past decade. While they never met in real life, they are finally going head-to-head in cyberspace.
Both horses satisfy every superlative on the racetrack. Both have solid and likeable connections. To me, both have their respective “I was there when ….” moments, though Zenyatta’s 2009 Breeder’s Cup Classic win will go down as one of the most thrilling horse races of all time. Most importantly, however, to paraphrase T-Pain (shout out to DJ Khaled), all Wise Dan and Zenyatta do is “win, win, win, no matter what.” So here it is — for all the marbles — the Wise Dan v. Zenyatta break down.
Zenyatta
In the world of horse racing, she needs no introduction. The overall Number one Seed, the Queen Z dominated Horse Racing in America for three years. Arguably the best race mare ever, Zenyatta not only brought dominance upon the sport, she brought style. She ran her races as a dead closer, nearly always managing to get up in time. The Queen alos knew how good she was, whic is perfectly displayed in her patented paddock prance. Her accolades are almost unnecessary to list. Winner of 19 of 20. Two time Breeders Cup champion, 2009 Distaff and 2010 Classic. 2010 Horse of the Year. 3x Champion Older Mare. Twice NTRA moment of the year.
For the finals, we are breaking out this Montage of all of Zenyatta’s 19 win.
Wise Dan
Six Eclipse Awards, two horse of the year honors, two Breeders Cup victories. He’s won on multiple surfaces at varying distances. Wise Dan’s credentials can fill an entire Daily Racing Form. And at his game, a mile on the turf, he has proven nearly unbeatable.
The eight year old gelding has captured 11 Grade 1′s and numerous other graded stakes. He’s also done so in impressive fashion. While his 5 and 6 year old campaigns were marked by dominant wins, his injury riddled 7 year old campaign was impressive for the gutsy and determined victories he earned. Less than two weeks after a heart stopping stretch drive in the Woodford Reserve, where he fended off Seek Again, Wise Dan underwent emergency Colic surgery. He emerged over three months later to capture the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch followed by the Grade 1 Shadwell Turf Mile. He’s back on the track and pointing towards a 2015 campaign.
Here is Dan’s 2014 Shadwell Mile win – too much class.
