Mike Smith On Zenyatta's retirement.

[TheGrandDesign]

Great article on the drf site on Mike Smith and his thoughts on Zenyatta's retirement.He makes a great point on how much pressure there is riding undefeated Zenyatta.
He states 1 1/16 is a sprint for her and she will get better the longer she goes.
Made me think back to Cigar shooting for Citation's record,and how much pressure Bailey felt the night before.

[Turkoman]

Great article on the drf site on Mike Smith and his thoughts on Zenyatta's retirement.He makes a great point on how much pressure there is riding undefeated Zenyatta.
He states 1 1/16 is a sprint for her and she will get better the longer she goes.
Made me think back to Cigar shooting for Citation's record,and how much pressure Bailey felt the night before.

By reading the article, you can definitely tell he feels an awful lot of pressure. He said he even cried recently.

[Shelby]

My husband and I both agreed before the LS that the pressure he must feel is tremendous. I really really want her to win the BC, but if she doesn't, can you imagine how people will dissect her and Mike? It's so much easier to come into a race as the underdog, IMO.

[joanied]

That is a great article...thanks, Shelby, I woulda missed it.

It does bring to mind how much pressure Jerry Bailey felt with Cigar...and he let it get to him when they took Cigar to CA. to get win #17...Bailey blew it...I hope Mike doesn't.
I recently watched Inside Information's show about Cigar...in a segment with Bailey he talked about that race (he hooked up with Siphon), and the man choked up and had tears in his eyes talking about it...he felt so bad...I also had seen an interview with Gary Stevens...he was visiting Point Given on the farm...and he apologized to the horse for a bad ride in the Derby...he also let his emotions show and choked up...
so, it's obvious many of the jocks feel incredible pressure with thse champions, and when they screw up, they pay for it for the rest of their lives with 'shoulda, coulda, woulda moments...I bet jocks like kent D re live certain races over & over and just cannot forget or forgive themselves for messing up an important ride...no doubt, Kent still beats himself up for his ride on Real Quiet...

anyway...excellent article and I've said it before about Zenny's connections...every one of them will feel as empty as her stall will be when she's gone...and that is just sad, sad, sad.