Good Morning Everyone!
This photo is TOO CUTE! It’s my guy, Mike Smith, who helped us select the FINAL 4 for our ZENYATTA BRONZE CONTEST! Mike stopped by Dottie and John’s last night and held my reins in his hands…just like he did when we were racing. I think this definitely got him IN THE ZENYATTA MOOD to select our Final 4! This photo brings back great memories…for both Mike and I! We had lots of great times together!
The names of the FINAL 4 will be given…along with the thoughts each person expressed as to what I meant to he / she. Go to the bottom of this diary post and click the button next to the person whose entry you think deserves to win. Click the Vote button, and you’ll see the current results.
We will allow the voting to take place for one week. The winner will be announced next Wednesday, April 27th. John will look at the polls before he leaves for the barn that morning (5 o’clock in the morning, CA TIME) and the winner’s name will be posted.
The poll has been moved from the Facebook page to this website so that non-Facebook users may vote!
GOOD LUCK TO ALL 4 OF YOU!
ENTRY #1…..VICKI L. VINSON……APPLE VALLEY, CA I knew Zenyatta was “one” special horse the first time I saw her in person. She came over to me and stuck her nose right in front of my camera. That was before the ’08 Lady’s Secret. Little did I know that a year later she would become the best medicine in the world, in helping me through the worst time of my life. I’ll love you forever Zenyatta!
ENTRY #2…..VALERIE FRANKLIN….DAVISON, MI Zenny, you have made people believe in horse racing again. Our sport has suffered so much tragedy and in this time of economic disaster and with Barbaro and Eight Belles so fresh in our minds, you have given us a chance to escape and to dream. We love you more than you could ever quantify.
ENTRY #3…..GEORGIA HARPER…..BELLEVUE, WA My obsession began half way through your first year and such enthusiasm could not be ignored by my husband. After 49 years, my husband and I have become such good friends but are so busy with work and family we don’t always take time to actually think about one another. As a gift for our wedding anniversary last August, I received an email at work from my hubby with an itinerary attached for San Diego saying “Tickets for my queen to go see the Queen”. We not only had a wonderful day at Del Mar, never leaving the paddock and visiting with so many young people who had been there to see only you but we really enjoyed our time together. I’m not sure what we will do for our 50th this year, but I don’t think it will compete with the happiness we shared last year watching you come across the finish line and celebrating as best friends enjoying not just a horse race but watching the most magnificent thoroughbred ever. We miss you, we love you, and look forward to cheering on your foal.
ENTRY #4…..DAWN CONRAD…..CEDAREDGE, CO Dearest Zenyatta. “Why are you special to me?” Is it the stately stature of the Queen like carriage? Is it the glistening brown coat with the diamond dapples? Maybe it is the dance or those still moments with your head held high? Is it your intelligence and fathomless brown eyes? Was it your first run free or perhaps a camera-ride on the back of Pegasus? Is it posters in the stands, a warm crowd on a cold Kentucky night, the excitement you bought back to racing? Your place in its history and future, the Breeders Cup, 60 Minutes, Horse of the Year, Vox Populi Award? A Fred Stone portrait, Jamie Corum lithograph, Nina Kaiser bronze? The cheers I shouted the tears I shed? Certainly your beauty, power, grace, breathe taking speed, final kick, heart stopping finishes and 19/1. Absolutely your gut wrenching, never give up, try! It is all of this, yet more. It isn’t only who you are, but what you mean to each of us. With Team Z, you are Jerry and Ann’s pride and joy, John’s soul mate and patient masterpiece, Dottie’s muse and she your voice. Mike’s talent, guidance and prayers brought you home safe each race. At Barn 55, you had care from Mario, workouts with Steve, walks with Carmen, loving star struck visitors and kisses from all. At Lane’s End, paddock pals, peppermints, pears and precious motherhood. Your family embodies the word generosity and together you have been transformative. You give pure happiness to thousands. You are a horseman’s ideal, a child’s dream, a friend to charities, a moment of healing to someone ill, a smile in the face of sadness, a sweet memory to all those you meet and a wish of all those that you haven’t “including myself”. While totally unique, I see in you the memories of my youth: the Black Stallion, Flicka, Secretariat and my Cinder (a gift from a brother leaving for Vietman), live again. There were endless summer days of best friends, bareback rides, Breyer’s horses on the bedroom shelves and glorious Triple Crown winners. With you, I am that horse loving girl again. What fun! I have my own challenges in life, as everyone does. While I seek to remain positive there are those moments. You are there to lift my spirits and touch my soul. Your diary is a place of remarkable civility where information, support and all things Zenyatta are shared and celebrated. Facebook, over 70,000 and still counting! The experience has been once in a lifetime and continues to be a magical ride. In the end my love cannot be fully explained, it is simply heart felt and joyful. It is no mystery why the word “angel” is used to describe you, for you are a creation of God, a blessing to us all and a remarkable gift. For everything you are and everything you mean, Zenny, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You are truly UNBELIEVEABLE! As always, sweet dreams. Hugs and kisses. XXXOOO
Wow! I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as I did! Dottie commented that she was literally in tears typing them for ME!
Vote for the ENTRY of YOUR CHOICE!
Blessings to All OF YOU who participated in this contest! I can’t THANK YOU ENOUGH for ALL OF THE LOVE AND KINDNESS you have shown ME!
With Love,
Hugs to ALL~
Z
Margaret
Personally I lost interest when the 64 were announced. Everyone was already voting for Dawn. It seemed like no matter what anyone else said she would get all the votes. I was in the first and second round and realized that if I were so fortunate as to be in the final four it wouldn’t matter.
Just for the record I think Dawn could have fit all those thoughts onto a regular postcard if she chose 6pt font.
Wow I am so disappointed that this went this way. I think Team Z had the SUPER BEST of intentions. I had no one say a word about my posts and I’ve been here since the start. It was all about Dawn. I guess the rest of us should just give it up cUse we don’t stand a chance.
Sunny Boyd
@ trina Nagele:
Drawn – selected, ur splitting hairs here, but in any case VOTING was not mentioned. Nowhere did it say the final four had to be voted on.
Changing the rules, and by omitting that fact of the vote is indeed a rule change, and it was said A POSTCARD, in everyday writing a paragraph is about all you can get on a postcard, athg longer should have been disqualified and and another name should have been drawn/ selected. In documents you can have rather long paragraphs, but this is no document. You’re trying to twist this so it’ll suit your intentions, that’s all this is. Either this is a real contest, where the rules stick from the beginning to the end, or you’re trying to play god.
Either way this is disappointing, and I have absolutely no stakes in this, I wasn’t in the 64. So it’s all the same to me. I, agree with the lady who commented on it being difficult to write your thoughts on Zenyatta in one paragraph.
Janie
Dottie, thank you so much for moving the voting to this site. You’re the best. And Zenyatta, I made a donation in your name to Old Friends – a modest one, but every little bit helps. Gosh, right now about 1500 votes have been tallied – isn’t that great? Good luck, Final Four!
Jane in Seattle
@Margaret
I don’t think it’s that, I think everything resonates differently with different people. A lot of times I really agree with something someone says, but I don’t respond. I never considered that their feelings might be hurt. I hope you keep posting, and for the record, although I don’t know any of the final 4, and I loved all their responses, I voted for Valarie’s – it was the one that was most like I felt. Doesn’t mean it’s the best, or not, just that it spoke to me most vividly. I think that’s what everybody is saying, not that they are trying to hurt anybody’s feelings or seem ungrateful. When emotions run high, people can get a little brash. And on the internet, it’s always hard to judge what people really mean. We start to think we know one another, but we don’t really. So it’s good to give people a little slack, I think. Good night and thanks for posting, Margaret.
karen g
Bravo Jane in Seattle! I am sure others feel same way too! BTW, Jess Jackson lived in California – wasn’t just an East Coaster. Goodnight you all in Zennyland of our dreams! Zenny, I love you more!!
Shari Voltz
Dear Zenyatta it was a busy day. I hope you enjoyed the sunshine. It was a really beautiful day here. Tonight I talked to Ray Paulick about my class. They are going to be in an article on his site on Friday. All because of you sweet girl. Thank you and thank you to your generous family. The children are so excited. You have given all of us so much. We live in such a depressed area but have beauty and hope in our world because of YOU! Well I need to do somethings before bed. I hope you have sweet dreams tonight. I love you so much. Hugs and Kisses from Shari XXXOOO
@To the children of Tytler School Horse Club I loved your beautiful egg pictures. They are AWESOME!!! Way to go :)
@Dawn I had an interview tonight. Please check out Ray Paulick’s site tomorrow under Features. It is called Good News Friday :) I hope your having a good week :) God Bless
Linda Henderson
The Final Four are fantastic! Love the picture of Mike.
susan in tn
@ JANE: well said!
@ MARGARET: i’ve read your posts and enjoyed them!
@ EVERYONE: i love this forum but have to admit the negativity has been pretty depressing (and surprising) to me . i don’t mean just expressing opinions but the truly unkind, bitter posts.
@ team z: thank you for everything!
@ zenny: happy horsey dreams, sweet girl!
susan in tn
@ the children of Tyler School Horse Club: AWESOME!
Joyce
@Jan – you darling, (sorry but that was my first thought) I just caught your post but might have missed it. I am going to Sam Houston tomorrow afternoon, but wasn’t sure how long I would stay. Now I will plan to stay longer and see what I can find out about Alex Brown being there. I have read his web site but am not totally familiar with all the news about him. I did love Barbaro, as I guess we all did, and would love to get a book about him. Do you know what time and where he will be?
mike
The truth speaks for itself. Everything that is covered will be uncovered. That is scripture and it is always true. Some things are ‘just wrong’ and thankfully we are left to vote silently. Maybe that is the task, that we have been given the power to overturn what some of us believe may have been a manipulation and we can right wrongs. It is wrong, for the little people are the greatest in the Kingdom for they are the most humble and do abide by the rules. They never think so much of themselves to even stretch them. So who should the sculpture belong to? The least? or the greatest? Christ was the least favored. We are given this task for a reason. I do not have the answer for you, but for me, I do. I am a college student, a Eucharistic Minister and Knights of Columbus. I do know, that my post card would have never have appealed to anyone had my three poor sentences been read. It is always the narrow path.
Shirley Donoho
Dawn Conrad should win, hands down!!
Shirley Donoho, Cerritos, CA
WILD HORSES
I just read what Sophie had to say about Mike Smith. All I can say is therapy may be helpful! Grammar 101 may be useful also.
karen g
Margaret – See my post way at the beginning in response to another’s post. Don’t feel so down! I still had a blast making mine out. Knew I would not win – other’s speak more powerfully here. Just thought I’d let Barn 55 know they were so highly thought of always! AND I LOVE THAT HORSE OF MY ZENNYLAND DREAMS TOO MUCH TOO!! WE ALL LOVE HER TOO MUCH! So, that’s what I did, and thank you to whomever may have read them – My HEART TO YOURS FOREVER!!!
karen g
@MIKE!! You stop that right now! Your posting here appeals to me! And your three sentences are worth their weight in gold!!! I know John and Dottie would think so too! I’m sure no manipulation is going on either – Dottie would not allow that – but the final four maybe should have just been drawn instead. And, Mike, you keep posting here! “We” love hearing from you too!
Leslie
I click “Vote” and I get an error…. help!
Joyce
@jan sorry for the slip, it is Saturday I’ll be at the track (tomorrow is a home day).
Can’t leave the site without a goodnight to our big girl, Zenny, may you sleep well and have wonderful dreams.
mike
I am only stating this because #4 has; as many believe, already been read, and re-included in the mix for each draw! Is it unfair? Yes. Is it not a compilation of everything Zenyatta, of course! How could it not be? It is a poignant letter. But most of us that took to the rules ‘as little ones’ and did not even think to write more than what we could contain in a postcard. My main thought is that since you aready have the rights to the words, you are seeking our agreement. I do not concur. Thank you for letting us decide who the statue goes to. It is holy week and the truth will prevail.
mike
p.s. it is no longer a bull-fight for you already have the rights to all four of the finalists words….use them as you may. I for one, am not afraid to say that you have picked them. But for the statue..you left that in our hands.
Vicki B.
@Amanda Gilliland – I very much liked your post above, it’s a great tribute to Zenyatta, who “took the world on a ride of a lifetime”, and it would also have been wonderful on a winning postcard (if it fit, LoL). @Jane in Seattle – I thought you wrote a couple of great posts, one about the Breeder’s Cup race, but especially your response to Margaret – very thoughtful and levelheaded. And Carolyn Caswell-Brown – I resonated with your post about “Club-Z”, and agree that “this group could attend a convention and be talking & debating issues until the wee hours of morning, deciding nothing and having a darn good time doing it!” I like all 4 of the Mike-chosen postcards, even Dawn’s larger-than-life one, because I think it all came from her heart. With Vicki’s, I could picture Zenny’s nose right in front of her camera, and that memory helping her later in her worst time. With Valarie’s, I could feel her sense of what Zenny has done for horse racing, especially helping us through current tragedies and the loss of beloved horses. And with Georgia’s, it was a great story about a special wedding anniversary, her husband taking “his queen to see the Queen”, and conveyed how happy they were and what it meant to them. I have to say, I haven’t quite decided yet whose sentiments to vote for. They all meant something, so I have to think about what meant the most to me.
——- I’ve read quite a few posts unhappy with the “complaining” and “bickering”. It’s interesting, because I don’t see it that way. It feels more to me just like everybody expressing whatever their feelings are about everything, at any given moment. What’s important to one person, is meaningless to another — I think that’s fine, even when I don’t like some of them. I actually looked up the word “bicker” and found interesting definitions: #1 – ‘Argue about petty and trivial matters, e.g., whenever the phone rings, they bicker over who has to answer it’. #2 – ‘(of water) Flow or fall with a gentle repetitive noise; patter, e.g. against the glass the rain did beat and bicker’. I’m not sure we are having bicker #1, that sounds more petty and mean; I rather prefer bicker #2, which sounds more like the babble of water, or multiple voices and feelings, not all necessarily always in harmony (we might get wet!), but all making up and contributing to the whole that is “Zennyland”. I think we all learn something here, in the process of participating. I thank you all for that. I thank Team Z and Dottie for providing the opportunity. And I thank Zenny for providing the motivation.
Jill Mabry
Being one of the original 64, I think we should ALL get one, but if that’s not possible, I would love anything Zenyatta as a conciliation prize. Just kidding…they are all great…Good Luck to the Final 4!! Go #1 :)
mike
By the way,
I have not posted of recent, for many of us men that are of interest in a ‘site such of this’ find it a distraction to have the ladies not take into consideration that there are men here.
S (in san diego)
For Mike:
Hi ladies and gentlemen. Hope you have all had a nice day.
So sad about Jess Jackson, he has been a mighty figure in racing and wine. My prayers go out to his family and friends. I know he has been ill for quite a while. He loved his horses and gave us some great athletes to admire and cheer for. Maybe Curlins and Rachels first will be named after him.
I just want to, once again, congratulate the final 4 and I am sorry about all of the complaining and hope that everyone can just be happy for whoever wins. We all love Zenyatta and the contest was a way for us to express our thoughts and to share them. I think all 4 did a great job (I am sure every card written was heartfelt). So regardless of how many words were written or what size the card was…please remember this was a celebration and tribute to Z. A gift from Dottie and team to keep us connected and entertained while we watch our Queen move into her next stage of life. Blessing to all.
mike
Robbie…this one was for you and Ensign RIP for I am on my way out as well. Let the ladies ooh and ahh and go on their ‘unholy’ way. It is a shame that beauty is no longer in the delicate and gentile nature of godliness. There will be no ‘wonder’ why men are no on this site.
mike
So well said “S in San Diego,
Thank you for your heart felt interest in sharing current events with equal interest and care. Appreciated..you are a jewel.
Marshall (girl's name)
@Lisa g: Thanks so much!
Yay, Zenyatta and Team Z!! Many, many heart-felt thanks to Dottie and all the
Team for this wonderful site and for all the loving attention and effort given.
The Final Four are fabulous – Good Luck!
Love and soft nose kisses!
Jan
@ Joyce, I read it in todays chronical that he will be there on Saturday signing his book. It didn’t say where. Im going to call tomorrow. I want to go and get a signed copy from him & maybe get to chat with him. It would be nice to meet you if you go. :)
Janice
Good luck to the last 4 they are all good.
Amanda Gilliland
My Sweet Lady Zenyatta, I hope you are resting comfortablely tonight after a wonderful sunny day. As I look back over this post I see many wonderful & good comments but I am sorry that you & Dottie had to read a few of the comments about The Final Four. I don’t understand why anyone would say anything about anyone because we all knew it was just pure luck to be picked in the first place. Nobody knew what was on a card when it was picked to begin with. The Mosses & The Shirreffs provided this wonderful contest for Z’s Fan Family, to be able to share with them what their Zenyatta means to us & racing for a chance of winning a Nina’s Statue if lucky enough to be picked by Team Z. Now we have the final 4. Then there will be one winner hopefully. Please stop the neighing now! We need to come together and celebrate Zenyatta like we normally do!! There is absolutely nothing that anybody can do to change anything about this contest except The Mosses & The Shirreffs. We need to stay Thankful, Grateful & Show Appreciation to The Mosses & The Shirreffs for us just to have this site to keep up with her and share with each other racing info and great TB stories. We are all winners to have Zenyatta inspire us with such passion and love. Let us honor Zenyatta by paying that passion & love forward to help someone else. Zenyatta did that 2 posts ago in the walk to raise money for cancer research with The City of Hope. I congratulate everyone who participated in this contest. I really love this site. It means a lot to me to read the comments of those who have met Zenyatta while racing. For me that was the only thing I had ever really wanted to do. To see her race live. Now I only dream about being there through the videos. Also I dream now of standing across the road and in the distance I see her standing in the field with her head held high, a breeze tickles her coat and she races to catch the wind then slows to dance and looks to see if anyone is watching. Zenyatta, I love you so much & respect your family for taking such great care of you. Sending Hugs & Kisses With Love From Alabama, Amanda G.
@DJ-I love your poem!
@Jan Maass Gadwood–Really like hearing about John Henry. I love hearing the TB stories & history.
Amanda Gilliland
@Mike-I would like to know what your 3 sentences would be.
@Vickie B-I like the title “Zinnyland” Just sounds so cool.
@karen g-I agree with you. I wish Zenyatta would have picked the winner.
@S in San Diego-Nice post!