Saturday, July 17, 2010

Saturday Off-Topic, but really, *really* fun:

Zenyatta is a six-year-old, unbeaten Thoroughbred that I'd never heard of until today. She has a signature dance and an unusual racing style. Watch this: you can see her using that great. Big. Butt to get speed right near the end. She's an enormous horse with a lot of power, and seems to completely enjoy what she's doing.


I'm not a huge fan of horse or dog-racing, but damn if it's not fun to watch the good ones really get into what they're doing.

7 comments:

  1. Molly6:18 AM

    The good racehorses do love what they do. Competitive instinct is bred into them, and they love to run. And most of the horses are treated like royalty - they're expensive as anything, and a mistreated horse won't turn a profit. So the OMG poor abused horsies stuff doesn't fly with me. My mom worked with a woman who owned racehorses...they were more pampered than your average housecat.

    Zenyatta is adorable, isn't she? I love her attitude. She's one of the horses who so clearly loves to run - and loves to WIN. Heh, my friend's horse is an ex-racehorse. P loved to race but his shortcoming was his ego. When he won, he would do a little victory dance...which was cute until he started doing it BEFORE he crossed the finish line, giving the horses behind him a chance to scoot past him under the wire. He dreams about racing still...he does his little victory flails in his sleep. He's the best horse ever, just such a sweet, sweet boy. She has a handful of former racehorses, some of them quite successful and most of them with sweet, people-oriented personalities that suggest they were treated well. (And then there's one who's just kind of grumpy - not mean, just a bit of a sourpuss and a fussbudget. He's my favorite :) )

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  2. Zenyatta is a BEAST. I love working with my cheap horses in south Louisiana, I can only imagine the pressure being the vet for a superhorse like her!!

    Here's an excellent Zenyatta video (set to Lady Gaga's Starstruck).

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  3. Holy smokes she can cover some ground!!

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  4. Taryn8:49 AM

    Zenyatta is amazing - even more so in person! One fun fact - her owner is Jerry Moss (the "M" of A & M Records) and his record company produced the Police album Zenyatta Mondatta. That's where her name came from - and another neat fact is that she was purchased at auction as a yearling for $60,000! She's definatly earned her keep!

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  5. Beautiful, noble animal.

    I once read that when all else is equal, bet on the horse with the biggest, highest butt. That's where the power is.

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  6. I just hate that the mares are never valued as much as the studs - because they can't make as much off a winning mare since they can only gestate one foal a season, but the studs can cover hundreds of mares... sexist! ;)

    She's an awesome horse!

    (and I've always done well picking winners by how much cutting up they do before the race)

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  7. Wow. That is fan-TASTIC. Good for her. My family is friends with a family that raises racehorses, but I never picked up any good tips. :D

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