There Can Only Be One: Horse of the Year

As much as everyone, myself included, would like to see Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta share Horse of the Year honors, it is very unlikely to happen. Both would have to recieve the same amount of votes. Each will go out a winner in their respective divisions though.

My pick for Horse of the Year has to be Rachel Alexandra. Without taking anything away from Zenyatta, I feel that Rachel Alexandra was the best horse to race this year. She won the Kentucky Oaks in a romp. Then she took the Preakness in her first win over the boys. After that she crushed the competition in the Mother Goose, breaking the stakes record that had stood since 1994 in race that has been contested at the current distance since 1959. She wasn’t being urged at the end of the race and if Calvin Borel had gone to work on her she would’ve easily broke Secretariat’s track record (I wasn’t able to find Big Red’s time, but I’m 90% sure he owns the record).

Her easy win in the Haskell Stakes over Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird was breath taking. She dominated that field from start to finish and was a very easy winner. As if beating the boys twice wasn’t good enough, Jess Jackson put the daughter of Medaglia d’Oro in to face older males in the Woodward. While she wasn’t an easy winner, Rachel Alexandra become the first three-year-old fillies to beat older males in a Grade 1 race. The field wasn’t too bad either thanks to the entries of Grade 1 winners Macho Again and Bullsbay.

All in all Rachel won 5 different Grade 1 races and found the winners circle at 7 different tracks this year. She won on tracks labeled fast and sloppy and from distances of 8 furlongs to 9 furlongs. She beat the boys three times and never lost in 9 trips to the track in 2009.

This filly has been absolutely stunning all year. Even if she doesn’t win Horse of the Year this time around she will almost surely take it in 2010. I look forward to watching her become the first filly to win the Breeders Cup Classic at Churchill Downs next year. Who is your pick? Let me know by leaving a comment.