A Classic finish for Zenyatta
Girls don't beat boys at this level of racing, but she won for the underdogs
Arcadia, California: These kinds of stories happen only in the movies. Hollywood can create the drama, the unbelievable ending, even the tears.
Zenyatta doesn't need Hollywood. She produces her own show. She is, as jockey Mike Smith, says, "a race horse sent from heaven."
On a day that racing will cherish for a long time, a historic moment that may even boost a struggling industry, Zenyatta beat the boys.
She won the $5 million (Dh18 million) Breeders' Cup Classic, a male domain for all of its previous 25 years.
The best female finish in this one had been a third place in 1992. Fillies and mares seldom even enter.
Saturday at Santa Anita, before an impressive crowd of 58,845, she both stunned and thrilled the racing world, maybe even parts of the general sports world that was paying attention.
She overcame a distracting delay at the starting gate, a horrible start, and a huge deficit with a half mile to go to beat the boys by a length. There was a Kentucky Derby winner in front of her, a Belmont winner, this year's Santa Anita Handicap winner.
Closing the gap
Smith closed the gap coming around the final turn, searched frantically for a gap between horses in front of him, found a crack and let her go.
As she gobbled up ground and passed horses as only she can, grown men yelled themselves hoarse and jumped and hugged like 10-year-olds.
Those who live and breathe this sport and fear for its future looked heavenward. The venerable Great Race Place rocked and rolled.
The thousands of signs scattered about the crowd — "Girl Power," "Maneater," "Rachel Who?" — bounced up and down in a sea of unrestrained joy.
Zenyatta not only won one for the underdogs, but did wonders for female pride. This was not Billie Jean King beating a creaky old Bobby Riggs. This was Billie Jean beating Roger Federer.
Zenyatta had won all 13 of her previous starts and was bigger by at least 100 pounds than any of the males she faced Saturday.
But the doubters were in abundance. In this kind of racing, at this level, the girls don't beat the boys. USA Today had 14 people handicap the race. None picked Zenyatta.
But when it happened, when the drama was right there for all to see, and feel, it was such a stunning display of athletic excellence that people began searching for comparable moments.
