And down the stretch, they come!

We’re still buzzing after last weekend’s incredible Kentucky Derby finish, and yet another extraordinary week at ZED RUN. Let’s burst out of the gates and start kicking up dirt in another edition of the ZED RUNdown! 

'Rich Strike' Wins the Kentucky Derby

The 148th Kentucky Derby went off like an absolute firecracker last weekend, with 80-1 longshot ‘Rich Strike’  – dashing across the finish line for the win. Navigating from 17th place to the winning spot was exciting in itself, but the legendary call by announcer Larry Collmus brought the moment to another level.

Relive the magic that was Collmus joining the PonyPlug247 team last March to lend his voice in support of their fundraising efforts. 

ZED RUN Twitter Spaces

KnowYourHorses hosted a Fireside Chat on May 6 featuring Jaret White, and Chris Ebeling. The chat focused on the inner workings of racing and LiveOps activations. Give it a listen. 

On May 7, ZED Gazette hosted a ZED RUN AMA featuring Rob Salha and Jason Melo. The candid conversation touched on the business side of ZED RUN and how the team has adapted to changes and challenges along the way, with a keen eye on the bright future ahead. 

If you missed Rob and Jason answering community-submitted questions, listen here. 

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Coming up - Danshan and Iceberg Racing will be hosting an AMA with Chris Ebeling and Jaret White at 3pm EDT, May 17.  

Tournament Tracker

NASCAR Racing Challenge #1: Breed for Speed

Attention NASCAR ZED PASS holders, do you feel the need to Breed for Speed? The first NASCAR Racing Challenge for pass holders is underway, with the focus on unraced racehorses. 

Did you miss out on the first NASCAR Racing Challenge? Purchase a NASCAR ZED PASS on OpenSea to be eligible for PASS holder exclusive racing events planned throughout the rest of the year.

Class 1 Premier 

Does your stable have a champion racehorse capable of competing against ZED RUN’s finest? The $125,000 Class 1 Premier is where the best of the best put it all on the line, and there is still time to get involved. 

For full details on how to participate please visit the ZED RUN Guide. 

ZED Merch Infinity Collection Drop

Exciting news, ZED Headz – your search for ZED RUN merch is over! You may have noticed we’re celebrating the release of our first-ever officially branded clothing range. But that's not all! ZED Headz who make a purchase during the pre-sale window will have the chance to win $10,000 USD in ETH.

Check out full details on how you can get your hands on our official ZED RUN gear in the Community Blog. 

Product and UX Updates

• Event filters have been released. Stable owners are now able to filter racing events by free/paid, as well as distance preference. 
• Fixes that help remove gates within free races as racehorses are entered have been implemented. This improvement helps to find races more quickly and solves conflicting gate issues. 
• Community members will soon be able to access ZED RUN using social media platforms. This will make the platform more accessible and user-friendly. 
• From May 17 to May 23, 2022, Daily Tournaments will be running twice a day, one after the other in shorter cycles of 12-hour qualification periods with two hours of final races. By continuing to vary our tournament experience, we hope to provide more of our players with opportunities to qualify and win.

Product Q2 Update has been published to the Community blog. The update touches on what product is most focused on between now and the end of June. Expect more prevalent and detailed comms about product-related tasks, beginning this upcoming week.

F*CK Cancer 

The First Annual F*CK Cancer 24-Hour community charity stream begins at 5pm EST on May 14, with donations benefiting Little Wishes, an organisation that grants wishes to chronically and critically ill children. 

The marathon stream hosted by Avon and Pony Zook will feature live interviews, flash tournaments and prizes (including some sweet merch donated by ZED RUN). Bring your passion and make it happen!

Sangudo Stables Onboarding Class

Happy one-year Zediverssary to Sangudo Stables, and a big shoutout for putting together a nice A-Z onboarding video for new stable owners.

If you’re a beginner at ZED RUN or know someone who is just getting started, this is a great place to start! Thanks, Sangudo! 

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Finding Susumu

The ZED RUN community is known for sticking together. Competitive as they may be, it’s a code embedded in ZED Headz that necessitates helping others be the best. 

That fact was evidenced last week when @Blossom_Racing was searching YouTube for some ZED content and stumbled upon a stable owner that was posting videos of a racehorse they had run over 600 times with only a single win.

“It was just so awesome to see someone not only grinding away but posting the results to YouTube! I decided to tag fellow community members and we set out to find this person.”

Over the course of the next day, the community worked together to track this mysterious stable owner. Eventually, a few emails and a bit of help from Google translator resulted in @Blossom_Racing finding the man – Susumu Hirano, a custom jeweler located in Tokyo, Japan. 

Susumu’s stable – inGod Jewels Racing – comprised of a single racehorse named Emerald Green Eth.

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“One day at the office I logged on to ZED, opened my stable and there was a beautiful horse with a champagne colour that I had never seen! I was shocked.”
- Susumu says 

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Ecstatic, yet confused, Susumu says he spent the rest of the day at work wondering in the back of his head where this racehorse – a Z35 Buterin Elite Filly named Rhombicosidodecahedron – had come from. 

“All day I was wondering about it. I knew I didn’t breed it, but I thought it could have been a ZED RUN airdrop,” Susumu says. “Later in the day I finally realised that @Blossom_Racing had sent me a note saying he was the kind person that sent it to me – all the way from New Zealand!” 

Susumu says the racehorses kept appearing – 12 in total, from many different community members – and he’s extremely thankful for the support. 

“At first I thought they were making fun of me for racing a racehorse that has only won once over 600 times, but then I realised that was wrong – they were actually calling me a legend and praising me for keeping at it,” Susumu said. 

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He says his new racehorses have opened up the game of ZED RUN, some so fast they “seem to be flying down the racetrack laughing at the others.” He’s also been sure to continue posting results to YouTube, now with much better outcomes. 

The stable that started it all says the entire experience has just reinforced the power of Web3 connections, and more specifically ZED RUN.

“I have a pen pal in Japan thanks to digital horse racing!” @Blossom_Racing says. “ This has all just really put into perspective for many of us just how much fun ZED RUN can be.”