Barn door is open in Zenyatta’s wake

The horses will keep running, but for a while, the fans will stop caring as much.

Horse racing is no different from other sports. Seasons build to highs and, that ended, return to plateaus of the routine.

Zenyatta will race no more. Certainly, she will not be forgotten.

Her dash down the homestretch at Churchill Downs on Saturday, ending three inches short of the wonderful colt Blame, was both a tonic and a catalyst for her sport. So many more watched with so much more interest than would ever be imagined for a niche-audience event such as the Breeders’ Cup that the potential lasting residuals should not be underestimated.

If nothing else, it inspired the wit of the written word.

Sunday morning’s headline in the Louisville Courier-Journal, the horse racing bible in America’s horse-racing mecca, was perfect: BLAME THE WINNER.

Longtime racing journalist Ed Golden noted that “the only thing Zenyatta lost in defeat was the race.”

Beverly Hills screenwriter Jim Hayden gave the perfect dry summary when he wrote: “The catching-up strategy seems to have caught up to her.”

Zenyatta has stirred the fan base and added to it. In losing the way she did, we see the black-and-white statistical 19-1 of her legacy in technicolor. Because she captivated so many people, she has set the stage nicely for her sport to push its trend bar upward.

Ahead for horse racing is so much, and none of it dull.

Upcoming in January will be the announcement of horse of the year, the grand prize of racing’s Oscars, the Eclipse Awards.

The voting Turf Writers Assn. of America has a big responsibility here. If it accepts the argument that whichever horse wins the Breeders’ Cup Classic is horse of the year, then it confirms that racing will always be a good-old-boy network, with the only thing that matters is what comes from, and happens, east of the Mississippi.

A vote that way also says that there isn’t even consistency in the bias, since last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic was won by Zenyatta, and she was second to Eastern horse Rachel Alexandra in the horse-of-the-year voting.

A vote for Zenyatta indicates recognition of her racing results and the positive intangibles she gave her sport.

(Note of clarification here: This typist is a member of the Turf Writers but is not allowed to vote because of his newspaper’s policies.)

But even before the Eclipse Awards, Santa Anita will hold its traditional Dec. 26 opening and racing will be back on dirt. Santa Anita owner Frank Stronach vowed to get rid of the synthetics and go back to the traditional surface, and the digging has been going on for several weeks now. There is no turning back. A full-page ad on the back of the weekend Daily Racing Form on Breeders’ Cup weekend trumpeted Santa Anita’s return to dirt.

Hollywood Park remains a mystery and a challenge to local horsemen. Will it shut down soon and become condos, or will it drone on into the future with nearly as many people working the backstretch as attending the races? And will Del Mar, understandably one of the leaders of the push for synthetic surfaces after a disastrous session in 2006, figure out a way to get horsemen to trust its surface and re-embrace the surf and turf?

And then there is the Breeders’ Cup, which was ready to make Santa Anita its semi-permanent home, starting next year, before Stronach pulled the rug out from under his tenant, Oak Tree, and left the Breeders’ Cup board angry and slightly distrustful.

Still, although the attendance at Churchill Downs was higher, the 2008 and 2009 Breeders’ Cups ran beautifully in perfect weather and without serious racing incident. At Churchill this year, one horse had to be put down after an accident Thursday and another during a Breeders’ Cup race Saturday.

Was the dreaded Santa Anita synthetic safer than the cherished Churchill dirt? Don’t think the Breeders’ Cup board, which selects future sites, didn’t notice.

Zenyatta and her connections taught their sport so much, if only it would pay attention.

On the morning after her loss, trainer John Shirreffs took down the sawhorses around Barn 41 at Churchill and let fans and media get up close and personal with his wonder horse.

“When you have a horse like Zenyatta,” he said, “it’s important to let the fans share that.”

Owners Jerry and Ann Moss gave fans another year of their horse. At age 6, she was healthy enough for that because Shirreffs had not rushed her as a youngster.

The model is there.

The Breeders’ Classic champion, Blame, is 4. He has had 12 races. The notoriety he gained by being the only horse to beat Zenyatta could be parlayed into so much more in a sport that has seen anew what a difference a star makes.

At Saturday’s post-race news conference, it was confirmed that Blame would stop racing and go to stud.

The breeding dollar bill had, once again, trumped the lessons of Zenyatta.

bill.dwyre@latimes.com