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Blame vs Onion
"Blame is no world beater in terms of history...so what does that make Zenyatta?"
This is similar to what Beyer said in his recent column, degrading Zenyatta's place in history because she lost to Blame. Here is what Beyer wrote:
"Before Saturday, Zenyatta's admirers argued that she was one of the all-time great racing talents of either sex. The Classic brought her abilities into perspective. She's as good as Blame, and few people would rank Blame among the immortals of the turf."
But it's unfair to quantify Zenyatta's place in history, or overall class, based on the fact that she lost to Blame.
Secretariat lost to horses that were far inferior to Blame, so are we to take Secretariats defeats and say, gee, how good could he have really been, he lost to Onion?
Man O War lost one race, to Upset. Again, you can't say that Man O War wasn't one of the all time greats because he lost one race to a horse that wasn't a great horse.
As for Blame, since he is retiring after only 13 starts, and has 9 wins, including wins over Zenyatta and Quality Road, it's hard to say just how good he is because they are simply retiring him too soon. If Blame came back next year and had another year like he did this year he certainly would go down in history as a great horse.
People who think that speed figures are the measure of greatness should have a ton of respect for Blame because he beat Quality Road both times he faced him. Not long ago, Beyer and other speed handicappers were gushing over Quality Road after he ran a 121 Beyer in the Donn. Yet Blame and Zenyatta proved that they are clearly better horses than Quality Road.
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