My Birthday and Secretariat

First off....It's my Birthday! Yay! But once upon time I was given a book full of 'What happened on your Birthday' events...and frankly...I was uninterested. While cleaning, I came across the book again and while trying to decide whether or not to get rid of the thing forever, I decided to flip through it. Go figure the first page had something to do with a horse...and not just any horse, but Big Red himself, Secretariat.

September 15th, 1973, Secretariat ran a race at Belmont against a horse that had just recently beat him, Onion, and previous Kentucky Derby Winner, Riva Ridge. In the end, Secretariat proved to be the great that he was and won by 3.5 lengths. Also true to fashion, Big Red set a record while schooling the horses too. He ran a mile and an eighth in 1.45. Simply amazing.

Congrats again Secretariat! I'm glad I could share this happy date with you!

Modern Seabiscuit vs War Admiral

As I go by and read my daily articles on ESPN, I found a rather annoying title.

Rachel 'not likely' to run again in '09

Not that I mind the girl is taking a break, we all know she has more than earned it, but now my dreams of her going to the Breeder's Cup to finally test Zenyatta or go and romp with the boys again is dashed. Perhaps it's just my gut, but if she had one in either race (which she probably would have, synthetic track or not) that could have, would have, secured her with a Horse of the Year, and easily best filly...but she's getting that one anyway.

But anyway...while I was reading this article, something just stuck out that reminded me of those two legends many years ago...

"Now that Rachel Alexandra has defeated older males in the Woodward, Jackson acknowledged that a showdown with the undefeated mare Zenyatta was less appealing to him. "It was never high on my agenda because I don't think Zenyatta wants to run in the East and we're not going to run in the West," he said. "They have a hell of a horse, and if she finishes up never defeated that's a great result to shoot for." The New York Racing Association was trying to stage a Zenyatta-Rachel matchup in the Beldame, by getting Betfair/TVG to sponsor a purse enhancement to the race that would have made it a $1 million race."

Take it how you will, I just experience a little deja vous. Extremely talented young horse owned by well know rich, racing people in the East not really caring to take on another great horse in the West...obviously there are many a differences...but you get my point. A match-up between the two would be interesting, and just like the first race, I don't know whose side I would really be on...cuzz let me tell you...I would have lost two bucks on the Seabiscuit vs War Admiral race...

As it be, I am sorry that she isn't sticking it out for one more Breeder's Cup related race this year, and hope that they decide to run her again as a four year-old. Hope she stays healthy through the winter resting months, and hopes Zenyatta continues to kick total ass in her races.