SMOKIN' JOE

The death of heavyweight champion Joe Frazier was well chronicled in the boxing media.

There was another Joe Frazier, this one a Thoroughbred of some talent owned by Peter Fuller, owner of Dancer's Image, disqualified winner of the 1968 Kentucky Derby. Fuller managed a fighter named Tom McNeely who once got a longshot chance to meet Floyd Patterson for the heavyweight crown.

Joe Frazier (the horse) was purchased by New Orleans owner Albert Stall Sr. I had the good fortune to meet and interview Joe (the boxer) when his horse showed up to race at Fair Grounds. The horse proved good enough to satisfy Stall's quest for a "Saturday"

horse.

Stall Sr. later called me some years later and asked a favor. Could I try to persuade his son, Albert Jr., to give up his ambitions to become a trainer when he graduated in geology at LSU? No dice.

The younger Stall, you may remember, posted a pretty good TKO of his own with Blame in last year's Breeders' Cup.

Back to boxing. I never saw Frazier again but did have the thrill of watching Muhammad Ali train in Vancouver for a bout with Canadian George Chuvalo. For five bucks you could watch him work the heavy and speed bags and skip rope with the grace and power that set him apart.

Fuller bred another good one in Mom's Command and bred the jockey who rode her, daughter Abigail.

NO BLAME, NO GAME

They say you only hurt the ones you love. If that's true, then there was a lot of pain to be distributed at the Eclipse Awards. It was easy to love both Zenyatta and Blame on their merits.

My handicapper's mind had me choose Blame after a Breeders' Cup for the ages was decided in his favor. That point of view shifted when I realized that, while Blame may have been Horse of the Year for 2010, Zenyatta might make historians crown her as the Horse of the Century.

Blame can only enhance his reputation now through success as a stallion. The mare's exploits will be the stuff of lore regardless of her subsequent ability in the breeding shed.

When a filly named Regret became the first female winner of the Kentucky Derby in 1915 she was known forever after as "the only Regret". Who was second that year?

Who cares?

Man O'War and Secretariat dominated the twentieth century and verbal combat over who was better spilled over into the present day. Secretariat even got a movie.

Zenyata's Hollywood connections assure that she may soon star on the silver screen.