Dear Sports Illustrated

This maybe silly to ask, but I have a request for 2010 Sportsman/Woman of the Year. However, it's a bit unconvential as this person is actually not a person. It's a horse. You see her name is Zenyatta and she has gone perfect in her career. Few horses have gone perfect in their careers. Colin and Personal Ensign are the two most notable names who have finished their careers undefeated. Man O War didn't, nether did Seattle Slew (who won the Triple Crown while still undefeated), Smarty Jones, or even Secretariat.

On October 2nd of this year, Zenyatta tied the North American record for consectutive wins. The horse she tied with Pepper's Pride retired undefeated herself 19 for 19. However, all of her races where against New Mexico breds, so we really didn't get to see how talented she really was. Zenyatta on the other hand doesn't have that luxary. As a Kentucky bred, all of her races have been against open company, also she got her start later then other horses born the same year she was. That's saying alot as horses born in 2004 included, Street Sense: the first Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner to win the Kentucky Derby, Curlin: the 2007 and 2008 Horse of the Year, Hard Spun: one of the most exciting horses around in 07 and only the second (I believe) horse to finish second in the Derby and Classic in the same year (Easy Goer being the other), Rags to Riches: the 2007 Belmont Stakes winner, the first filly to win a TC race in 19 years and the first to win the Belmont in over a 100 years and many more horses such as Any Given Saturday, Dreaming of Anna and Octave just to name a few. If you look at her record there isn't much more to explain:

* First Horse to win 2 different Breeders' Cup races (Ladies Classic/Distaff and Classic)

* First Filly/Mare to win the Classic
(at this time of writing) 12 G1's including all three of Southern California's major G1's for Fillies and Mares

* Defeated G1 winners: Ginger Punch (Champion), Mine That Bird, Richard's Kid, Hystericalady, Tough Tiz's Sis, Summer Bird (Champion), Romance is Diane, Twice Over (GB), Gio Ponti (Champion), Life is Sweet, Cocoa Beach (CHI), Music Note, Carriage Trail, Santa Teresita, Colonel John, Awesome Gem, Girolamo, Rip Van Winkle (IRE), Einstein (BRZ).

* Stakes winners who are not G1 winners that she has beaten include: Regal Ransom, Bear Now (Champion), Sealy Hill (Champion), Brownie Points, Just Jenda, St. Tritians (GB), Zardana (BRZ), Dawn After Dawn, Switch and many more.

The one downside about her career is that she never faced 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra, a matchup that the racing community was asking for almost a year. Zenyatta will be making one final start in her career. That will be in the Breeders' Cup Classic which she won last year. Just to see how beloved she is, especially in California, take a look at her final start in Cali. This was the Lady's Secret a race named after a Horse of the Year, next year this race will be known as the Zenyatta.

Sports has it's ups and downs, the highs of championships and the lows of defeat. I hope that if she where to win the Classic, that you would consider her for Sportswoman of the Year for 2010. She has brought such joy to horse racing, a sport that has been suffering for quite some time.

Thank you for your time,

Rachel Levine
Delaware