@Perry What's even more interesting than the fact that there are results of students performing better - is the fact that people completely disregard those results. The author I wrote about above talks a lot about this in his book. I highly recommend his TED talk: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html

@Kay No one is asking Zenyatta's owners to burn her out. We simply want them to run her in a similar campaign to the male horses she will face at the end of the year in the Classic. If she's their equal (which she certainly appears to be) she should be able to handle it. There's no reason she should race in the same female-only races she's competed in, and won for 3 years - unless her owners don't want to challenge her. In my opinion, Zenyatta is great. And she should be allowed to continue proving it by racing and winning against the best horses in the US. As for why Zenyatta's owners raced her in open competition last year for the Breeder's Cup instead of the Ladies Classic - they finally understood that Zenyatta couldn't win Horse of the Year if she didn't race against the best. She's a great horse. Run her like one. And that means taking risks and going after challenging victories.