Zenyatta a Classic entry in Breeders’ Cup, and that’s about it

By GARY WEST

gwest@star-telegram.com

Twenty years ago, the Breeders’ Cup Classic featured what might be horse racing’s last great rivalry. For many who saw them, Sunday Silence and Easy Goer defined racing, and their sparkling confrontations united them not just in memory but in the pursuit of greatness.

It’s impossible to recall that Breeders’ Cup without also wondering what has happened to the sport and its championship event since Sunday Silence and Easy Goer dominated the stage. How many great horses will be racing Nov. 6-7 at Santa Anita?

But 20 years ago ... well, a throng turned out at Gulfstream Park to witness the greatness. And for the Classic, they stood from the start, watching with pent-up and combustible expectations as Sunday Silence made his typically dazzling move in the second turn. He seized the advantage about mid-stretch and then tenaciously withstood the charge of Easy Goer to win by a neck.

Although the fourth meeting of Sunday Silence and Easy Goer was the main attraction, many other stars pranced onto the track that day, Nov. 4, 20 years ago. Go for Wand won the Juvenile Fillies to secure the first of her two championships. Bayakoa, who had won the Spinster Stakes by 11 lengths, was supplemented, for $200,000, to the Distaff, where she defeated Winning Colors while winning her seventh Grade I stakes of the year.

They’re all in the Hall of Fame now — Sunday Silence, Easy Goer, Bayakoa, Winning Colors, Go for Wand. And how many future Hall of Famers will be competing Nov. 6-7?

Of those aimed at the 26th Breeders’ Cup Championships, only Zenyatta is certain to enter the Hall of Fame someday Yes, one or two others eventually could make for a Hall-of-Fame argument. If she repeats in the Mile, Goldikova, for example, would become a candidate even though she’s based in Europe. Miesque, after all, is in the Hall of Fame based on her two Mile victories.

Summer Bird, who’ll run in the Classic, probably will be the champion 3-year-old, and he could race long enough to compile an impressive list of accomplishments. Quality Road and Girolamo have vast potential.

But nobody in this Breeders’ Cup can compare to the headliners of 20 years ago. None of the 2-year-olds aimed at this Breeders’ Cup have shown nearly the promise of Go for Wand.

No, Zenyatta, who’s unbeaten in 13 races and a reigning champion, is the brightest star in this year’s sky; for casual fans she’s the only star. That’s a serious problem.

Rachel Alexandra has completed her campaign with eight victories, and her principal owner, Jess Jackson, has decided to pass the Breeders’ Cup, largely because of Santa Anita’s synthetic surface. Sea the Stars, the Arc winner who’s not only the best horse in Europe but one of the best ever, has been retired.

So there’s Zenyatta, and her connections haven’t decided where exactly she’ll run — either in the unfortunately named Ladies’ Classic nee Distaff on Nov. 6, or perhaps in the Classic the following day. Her trainer, John Shirreffs, said there won’t "be a decision for a few weeks."

Except in the most fanciful minds, Rachel Alexandra has clinched Horse of the Year honors. And so aside from the additional purse money, the Classic offers Zenyatta only a chance to dispel the notion that her career has been a tremolo of soft spots against modest opposition. On the other hand, she has almost nothing to lose by running in the Classic, where a loss would be forgivable.

Zenyatta hasn’t been as overpowering this year as she was a year ago. Her recent efforts imply she might not be competitive in the Classic. On the other hand, like many great horses, maybe she has learned to do just what’s necessary to win.

Her jockey, Mike Smith, said she can "run with anyone, anytime, anywhere," and maybe she can, but she can prove that only in the Classic.

Either way, in the Ladies’ Classic or the real Classic, Zenyatta is the star and the measure of this Breeders’ Cup.

And so in 20 years, the Breeders’ Cup has expanded its program to two days; it has added races and prize money. And it will no doubt attract more European competitors than it did in 1989. But sports fans go to championship events so that they might approach greatness, see greatness made vivid and share in historically great moments, which means that this year they don’t yet know whether they need to go to the races on Friday or Saturday.

Gary West, 817-390-7760

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