LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- There is a scene late in the movie Secretariat where the horse's eventual biographer, the great turf writer Bill Nack, who then was a "Sports Illustrated" reporter, is portrayed leaping up and down cheering for the horse from the press tribune as Secretariat thunders to Triple Crown victory.
One of the cardinal rules of the vocation of sports reporting is that there is no cheering in the press box, and the scene made me wonder whether the filmmakers, who played with the facts of Secretariat's life, misrepresented Nack, too.
But in the aftermath of Keith Olbermann's faux pas and the spirit of full disclosure, I must admit: I was jumping up and down Saturday evening in the Churchill Downs' press tribune cheering for Zenyatta as she thundered down the stretch closing on the leaders after the track announcer pronounced her "dead last" at least twice in the first half of the two-minute Breeders Cup Classic. I'm not ashamed, either.
The race record showed in the end that Zenyatta -- the six-year-old mare who captured the imagination by entering the Classic, her career-ending race, 19-0 -- lost by a head to Blame. But the manner in which she so nearly won made for the most exciting sporting event I've ever witnessed in person.
In fact, if every major horse race promoted to the public were as great as the 2010 Breeders' Cup Classic, the sport of thoroughbred racing wouldn't be talked about as a dying sport. It would be thriving. Tickets to big days like Saturday's would be on the scalper's market. TV ratings would be through the roof. All because of the way Zenyatta competed and nearly did what was thought to be impossible. For that alone she should win Horse of the Year.
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