The pursuit of Perfection or the pursuit of Greatness

Perfection or Greatness?

By “AfleetAlexForever”
8/14/2009

Perfection is defined as the state or quality of being or becoming perfect, the highest degree of proficiency, skill or excellence, a quality, trait, or feature of the highest degree of excellence.
Greatness is defined as being notable, remarkable, exceptionally outstanding, important, highly significant or consequential, distinguished, of noble or lofty character.
Both of these attributes are impressive and there are times when one prevailing quality outshines the other, which one would be foremost, I have no idea they both have their positives and there would seem to be no negatives. Well then we get to the topic of horse racing, there are a number of qualities that could be used to quantify what we are seeing on the race track this year. We are all lucky enough to be able to experience the incredible talents of two equine stars that are as impressive as any 2 stars running at one time in the history of the sport.
One of these stars resides on the West Coast and another resides on the East Coast. They are owned by connections who take extreme care to make sure that they put the health of their stable star first but there are some differences in the way that the connections have campaigned these two stars. Zenyatta is a 5 year old mare; she races in California and has a perfect race record of 12 starts and 12 wins. She Is trained by John Shirreffs who is based in California, and owned by Mr. Jerry and Ann Moss. The Moss’s have campaigned 2005 Kentucky Derby Champion Giacomo and B.C. third place finisher Tiago. Thus far Zenyatta has bankrolled 2.5 million dollars in her career; she has won races like the Apple Blossom Handicap, the Clement L. Hirsch and the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic. The 12 for 12 undefeated records pretty much sums up what her career has been about. The Moss’s have come under fire due to the path that they have taken to allow Zenyatta to keep her perfect race record. This has caused there to be question about her place in history even if she finishes out her career with a perfect record. Her connections realize that they have a very special mare, but in the process of trying to keep a perfect record some question the quality of competition that she has met in her career, It appears that her connections are doing what they can to protect her perfect record, get her to the Breeder's Cup and win and therefore keep that record intact, and retire her. Some might argue that this Is taking the path of least resistance, but others would tend to say different. During Zenyatta’s 12 race career to this point she has faced 8 grade 1 winners. This on the outside looking in would give indication of greatness due to the quality of the competition. When you look closer though it would appear quite a bit different. In the Breeders Cup Ladies Classic alone Zenyatta faced 5 of her Grade 1 foes. That would leave 11 races where she faced a total of 3 other grade 1 horses, some of these races included the same horse over and over again. In comparison, Ginger Punch the 2007 Breeders Cup Ladies Classic Champion faced close to 20 Grade 1 winners in her career. So the big question is does the quality of competition make a difference. Quality over Quantity, some might make an argument for both sides. Remember though no matter what that undefeated is still undefeated and Zenyatta is a true Champion.
Does the pursuit of perfection leave the door open for another to slide in and achieve the standard of greatness? On the East coast stands the embodiment of Greatness in the eyes of many. It has been a long time since a 3 year old filly caused the connections of so many horses to wait to make decisions about every race that is being run until they know where her connection are pointing. In Rachel Alexandra there is so much potential, potential seen and still unseen. Rachel Alexandra is a 3 year old filly out of sire Medaglia d’Oro she is owned by Stonestreet Stables & Harold T. McCormick, with Jess Jackson of Kendall-Jackson Winery holding controlling interest. They purchased the filly after her Kentucky Oaks victory from her original owners: breeder Dolphus Morrison and partner Michael Lauffer. Initially she was trained by Hal Wiggins, after new ownership she has been turned over to Steve Asmussen. Rachel has raced 13 times with 10 wins out of those races, she is currently on an 8 race winning streak and has won those 8 races by a combined 69 ¼ lengths. She has lost races therefore she is not being pampered to continue on an undefeated path. She at this point has no competition on the 3 year old level, and is most likely going forward to either open competition or will run against older females for the first time. She has emphatically beat both 3 year old fillies and colts and now has caused the connections of older male horses to await decisions before making a decision about the next race. One likely race for her is the Woodward Stakes, and the connections of the Whitney Winner, Bullsbay has stated that they do not want to run against Rachel Alexandra and will await the announcement from her owner. Her owner Jess Jackson is a wine mogul from California, he is a sporting man who wants his horse to achieve the most possible. This can be seen by the ambitious schedule that Rachel has taken on since being purchased in May. So while perfection is not in the scheme of things, her greatness and incredible legacy will be without question.
So again the question you have to ask yourself is Perfection or Greatness, if you had to choose one which would it be.

AfleetAlexForever

SouthWest Stakes Day - An "Old Fashioned Romp"

An "Old Fashioned Romp"

As I watched the 44th running of the SouthWest stakes, I realized that we may be watching something special in a horse named Old Fashioned. This horse is owned and trained by the same connections of Eight Belles. This horse has the same Sire and the same desire and determination to win. Whats most impressive is how he does everything with ease. Larry Jones, Old Fashioned's trainer has said "This horse is truly blessed,". "He stays fit. We weren't looking to go out in :45, but he showed he was a lot fitter than we thought. He is a gift and we will play it day by day. With a horse like this you don't want to take any chances."
"After a two and a half month layoff, Larry Jones couldn't have prepared Old Fashioned any better for his 2009 debut," owner Rick Porter noted on his website. "He settled in nicely for Ramon chasing tough fractions, but showed his stuff when he turned for home. He did everything Larry wanted."

Old Fashioned is the second registered foal from Collect Call, whose first foal, Kauai Calls (Fusaichi Pegasus), is a two-time winner at six furlongs. Collect Call ranked among the prominent three-year-old fillies early in 2001. Because of his pedigree there are some questions about his ability to get the Classic Distance of the Kentucky Derby, but the ease of which he ran the 1 1/8 mile Remsen gives an indication there are no issues with his ability to get two turns.

Old Fashioned will continue to train and prep in Arkansas and take the same route as Champions Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Lawyer Ron & Curlin. He will run next in the March 14th Rebel Stakes, and then in the April 11th Arkansas Derby.

Photos from the SouthWest Stakes can be found at : http://photobucket.com/afleetalexforever

"King of Kings"

I want to take a moment to welcome a Brand New Blogger to the AfleetAlexForever BlogSpot. His name is Marcus Schmidli and he will be sharing a great deal of his Horse Racing knowledge with us. So without further ado, here is the first edition of the

"Marcus in Seattle" Files.

King of Kings

By Marcus Schmidli

"Curlin has proven himself across two continents with 16 starts, the honor of 2007 Horse of the Year and the greatest North American money-earner in racing history."

-Jess Jackson.

His racing career was over in a flash. Passed by two European horses in the final furlongs of the Breeders Cup Classic. His defeat was a polarizing moment in horse racing. For some, it allowed them to cash in on a big pay day. For a few, it allowed them to fist pump at the notion of "their" Zenyatta becoming horse of the year. And for others, namely me, that defeat was the one of the most painful moments of my young life.

You see, I'm 22. I'm immune to fear. I have very little worries aside from the normal day to day inconveniences. And very rarely, if ever, have I been troubled or saddened deeply by the loss of a loved one. But when I saw that Curlin hadn't managed to hit the board in his final race, I wept. That might be an odd way of dealing with the emotion surrounding the race. I could have rejoiced in Curlin's triumphs of the past, I know. But the past wasn't of any significance to me. Only the future. In the moments after the race, it hit me as it hit many for the first time, that the race I had just witnessed was most certainly Curlin's last. There was no future.

And with that powerful knowledge came the horrific feeling I had rarely felt. I felt as if I had lost a family member. Call it silly. Call it crazy. Call me what you will. I've never had a hard time saying goodbye to a horse, simply, because I've never been attached to one before. That very reason is why I was hit so hard and rocked to the core when I saw how all of this would play out. Underneath all of the speculation that Curlin would return for a 5 year old campaign, I secretly knew all that was too good to be true. Why would someone in this day and age allow an animal to do that? Why risk it? Why not go the way of Street Sense and Hard Spun, two horses who dazzled us and then left the sport as quickly as they entered it? Why even get your hopes up? Those lingering questions are rhetorical in some sense. We all know the answers before we ask, sometimes even if we don't want to hear them. Curlin racing at five was a pipe dream. And to be blunt, so was Curlin racing at four.

And so, in 16 starts, I got to witness 11 thrilling victories, one memorable loss to a filly who was out of this world, and many other races against top competition. Of the new decade, I have a hard time finding better statistics to build a colt's legacy. Tiznow winning back to back Classics is right there. But other than him, who really stood out? I saw Smarty Jones, Afleet Alex, Barbaro, Big Brown, Funny Cide and many others just as you have. I saw many horses fail in their attempt to becoming a Triple Crown winner. I saw one horse fail to fight off an infection and I saw a few horses who were wildly overrated in some sense. But what I witnessed these last two years with Curlin, was more than memorable. It was a religious experience to some degree. It brought a collective pool of race fans together to cheer for a horse who wasn't running for a Triple Crown but rather, immortality. And isn't that what the sport is about? Legacies. History. Tradition.

After watching Curlin win the Dubai World Cup this last year, I wrote this about the horse:"...No horse ever instilled more confidence in bettors, owners, trainers, fans and his jockey than Curlin. There hasn't been a race where he looks out matched or out classed. There hasn't been a race where he looked annoyed or rattled. I haven't seen him make a mistake in a race aside from maybe going too wide in the final turn at Belmont. All he does is win. And he wins big. Every time he takes the track he reminds me, with his elegance and superiority, that horse racing might still have a very bright future ahead."

I stand by that quote to this day. Curlin might not have won every race. But anyone who got to see him run felt privileged regardless of the outcome. I'm sure in the future, his records will be surpassed and people won't acknowledge what he gave to the sport these last few years. But I'm 22, I'm young and I haven't been witness to Spectacular Bid or Seattle Slew. I don't know Alysheba or Sunday Silence. All I know is what I'm able to see. What I've always been taught by my father was that horse racing is "The Sport of Kings." Maybe each era of racing has it's own king. THIS era belongs to Curlin. Farewell and thank you for the memories.

Long live the King!