SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY, August 10, 2010--I’ve tried, I’ve pleaded, I’ve cajoled, just short of begging. I’ve written pieces such as “Can’t We All Get Along?” Go back in the archives and read one if you doubt that.

Other stories have been written, too, stories that posited how unfair and shortsighted it is that a compliment of either Zenyatta or Rachel Alexandra is to disrespect the other.

You might be glad to learn that, like most of you, I’m sick of reading and writing about the two mares, no matter how great they are. And until they race again, or new news develops, I no longer will stoke this insatiable fire.

First, this heads-up to Webmaster Mark. Get ready for an onslaught of invective, character assassination, or worse. It could get ugly quickly. But I’ve had enough. Now it’s time to allow chips to fall.

Running Zenyatta in the Zenyatta is a disgrace.

At least when New Mexico-bred sprinter Peppers Pride remained in state-bred company to complete an unbeaten streak at 19, the connections never promised a whirlwind campaign. They placed her where they expected her to win.

This year, the Zenyatta camp have done the same. Only their Perfect Campaign has done a disservice to the legacy to the great race mare.

Is Secretariat or Seattle Slew or Spectacular Bid or Man o’ War any less than because they got beat? Since when is losing a race some big disgrace? Horse racing is a game in which if you’re wrong two out of three times you’re considered a genius.

The true disgrace in all this is saying one thing and doing another. The connections promised they would share Zenyatta with all her fans. I wasn’t aware that all of them lived in California.

Detractors disparaged Rachel Alexandra because they felt Jess Jackson ducked the 2009 Breeders’ Cup. Beating Grade 1 males thrice, including elders, just wasn’t a world class good enough. But they can’t say it came as a surprise.

Jackson announced he wouldn’t run on “the plastic” well before the Woodward. No one was surprised that another very successful businessmen had become a control freak. By definition, control freaks get what they want. What’s the good of having all this weight if you can’t throw it around?

The rescheduled, lengthened and enriched Lady’s Secret Stakes at Monmouth Park is an example of this. It was no less tacky than the road being taken by Zenyatta‘s people.

The wraps finally are coming off the defending Horse of Year’s 2010 campaign. Resultantly, one of the hottest mares on the East Coast, ironically named Malibu Prayer, will duck Rachel and head to Monmouth Park for the Molly Pitcher instead.

But the Personal Ensign will be no walkover. Life At Ten and Unrivaled Belle are more than capable Grade 1 rivals.

When the undefeated mare recently went after 18 straight and pulled it off, no one noticed. After tying Cigar, Zenyatta’s every move should have been chronicled in mainstream sports media. Nothing fires the imagination like a little imagination.

Instead, it all happened with a whimper. The only people who knew what was happening were racing’s true fans, some of whom waited until 9:30 on a Saturday night to see her on a delayed simulcast feed, if one were even available.

I cannot forget how excited I was to hear that Zenyatta would race again at 6; a clear challenge against all odds. She would be shared with all of racing’s fans and the rest of America, too, not just those in her own backyard. Finally, a win for racing. Instead, we got 2009 all over again.

As a sports fan and lover of this greatest game played outdoors, I can no longer root for Zenyatta’s human connections and, by extension, their mare to win #19. They had a chance to perhaps make a small difference but instead placed greater emphasis on their own local celebrity and “the streak.”

If the Zenyatta camp had a true sense of history and tradition, they might have recalled how a great West Coast champion beat a great East Coast champion in the 1978 Jockey Club Gold Cup. And they might have remembered, too, how it was the vanquished Seattle Slew that won the day. His greatest performance came in a losing effort.

I can’t think of anything more deliciously appropriate than to see Zenyatta suffer her first defeat in a race named in honor, a made-for-the-moment Grade 1 event that disrespected another great mare, Lady’s Secret, who never ducked, who sought new worlds to conquer and not challenges to avoid.

And would a defeat in Zenyatta the race make Zenyatta the horse any less than? Of course not. Would it mean that she would have no chance for redemption a month later with a Classic repeat at Churchill Downs? Again, no. And isn’t that truly the stuff of legend?

“If we go to New York, that will mean she’ll be away from the barn for over a month,” Shirreffs told the Daily Racing Form early this week. "The only thing that concerns me is if I go to New York, do I go directly to Kentucky?

“How long do I stay away from the [California] stable? I'm not a good telephone trainer. We have to decide the best decision. We'll follow the script as much as possible as we did last year," he said.

And so any trainer who successfully ships around the country apparently is a good telephone trainer. I thought he might be just good horsemen, perhaps even a sportsman.

Following last year’s script is not a bad thing and is common practice in this business. But we all could have saved lots of time if we were told that right from the beginning.