DNA of Champions

DNA OF CHAMPIONS

Eblouissant (left) and her older Zenyatta. (Photo courtesy of Benoit & Associates) 

In sports, in high-level competition, in daily competition, in life in general, there are cases where genetics, the transmission of the biological heredity from generation to generation, is shown as an irrefutable scientific pattern.

Almost six years ago, Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year, made her graceful debut at Hollywood Park, thus beginning a formidable, unique and almost epic career that saw her earne 19 straight wins, 17 of them in graded stakes races, and 13 of the exclusive Grade 1 category, losing only by a head in her last performance, the Breeders Cup Classic in 2010.

Zenyatta was bred by the late Eric N. Kronfeld, a tough-talking New Yorker who was a lawyer and made his mark in the music industry, forming record companies with legendary producers. Kronfeld also found success breeding racehorses, crossing his mare For the Flag with Kris S. to produce Vertigineux, from whom he bred three stakes winners: Where's Bailey, Balance, and Zenyatta, the final two Grade 1 winners and the last a multiple champion and the only female to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Eblouissante (a French word meaning dazzling, overwhelming) debuted almost a year ago on the same stage that saw the glory afternoons of her older sister, and she could not have lived up better to her name.

Trained by John Shirreffs, who also conditioned Zenyatta, Eblouissante’s debut could not have been better, revealing the quality that distinguishes champions. Following the same script delivered by her sister, she settled well back early and then passed her rivals as if they were poles to win by 4 1/4 lengths.

To emulate the feats of her sister Zenyatta was a huge challenge, a peak almost impossible to match much less to overcome, for Eblouissante. However, Eblouissante seemed to have accepted the challenge. The Shirreffs pupil won again once more before being defeated in the Grade 3 Shuvee Handicap on July 20 at Saratoga, where moments before the start she acted up in the gate breaking two teeth and grabbed herself in a couple of spots on her legs.

Now listed among 3,602 horses Keeneland has catalogued for its 2013 November breeding stock sale, which runs from Nov. 5-14, Eblouissante is expected to join her older sister in the breeding shed with an opportunity to continue the legacy of this noble family, giving luster and shine to the racing industry with their future offspring. In their family tree, there seems to exist and be repeated a magical molecule, fruit of a careful and wise natural selection, that transmits, without mistakes, the DNA of champions.