Catching Up With Zenyatta

Zenyatta's first Breeders' Cup win came in the 2008 Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic. (Photo by Eclipse Sportswire)
When Zenyatta burst onto the horse racing scene in late 2007, she was known as multiple Grade 1 winner Balance’s half-sister. By the time Zenyatta retired, the roles had reversed.
Zenyatta’s debut came on Nov. 22 of her 3-year-old year and she showed what would become her trademark closing style, charging from last to first to win by three lengths.
Zenyatta’s first Grade 1 victory came in her fourth start, five months later, when she beat reigning champion older female Ginger Punch in the Apple Blossom Handicap. Zenyatta continued to roll in graded stakes races, never winning by more than 3 ½ lengths in her races between the Apple Blossom and Breeders’ Cup. Zenyatta’s late running style became the trademark of the big mare and often kept spectators on the edge of their seats in the stretch of her races. 
Another trait that made Zenyatta equally noticeable was the “dance” she showed off in the paddock and post parade, which soon became a fan favorite. But the move also served another purpose, letting Zenyatta get some of some of her energy out.
“Zenyatta … had a lot of energy. So it was always a matter of finding a positive way to deal with her energy,” said John Shirreffs, who trained Zenyatta for her entire career. “[Jockey] Mike Smith taught her how to do the dance so she could express herself with a little bit of a physical action by doing that. Then, we learned that one of the things in the warm up was not to warm her up too much, just let her stand and relax before she went to the gate, so as she was developing, so were we learning about her.”
When Zenyatta entered the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic, she was the favorite for the fifth consecutive time but was facing the strongest group of fillies she had met in what would be her toughest test to date.
Breaking in her customary slow style, Zenyatta settled comfortably in last under Smith, racing more than nine lengths off the leader at the first three calls of the race. Smith didn’t put any pressure on the filly until they reached the far turn, when he shook the reins at her and she started to pass horses. Zenyatta was five wide as she rolled into the stretch but the added distance didn’t bother her and she pulled away to win by a length and a half.
2008 BREEDERS’ CUP LADIES’ CLASSIC

The following year, Zenyatta shipped to Churchill Downs to make her season debut in the Louisville Distaff at Churchill Downs but was scratched due to a muddy track and Shirreffs rerouted to the Milady Handicap, a race she had won the year before. Shirreffs took the exacta in the race when Zenyatta outfinished stablemate Life Is Sweet by a length and a half. A month later, Zenyatta scored her second consecutive victory in the Vanity Handicap before heading to Del Mar to try and double up in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes.
Zenyatta’s smallest margin of victory had been a half-length, but the 2009 Clement L. Hirsch in August made that margin look large.
At the first call, Zenyatta was 13 lengths behind leader Lethal Heat, who was all alone on the lead. Zenyatta slowly cut into the margin but was still 4 ½ lengths back as the field entered the final furlong. Lethal Heat finally folded but Zenyatta had another foe threatening for the win, Anabaa’s Creation, who was still a head in front only a few strides from the finish line. With one final lunge, Zenyatta passed Anabaa’s Creation in the final stride to win by a head.
“It was very, very close down there,” Shirreffs told Blood-Horse. "All the way down the stretch I’m hollering, ‘Get ’em, Get ’em.’  What I really liked about her race is that she had a lot of ground to make up, and she put her head down and kept making it up. She never picked her head up. She kept reaching out and running for the wire. That’s Zenyatta.”
Her final prep race for the 2009 Breeders’ Cup was much less stressful for the mare’s connections as she was ridden out to win the Lady’s Secret by 1 ¼ lengths. Behind her were a group of horses that she would face in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic if she went to that race, but instead, Shirreffs and owners Jerry and Ann Moss decided to take on males in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
Even though a female had never won the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Zenyatta went off as the favorite in the race at odds of 2.80-to-1. It proved to be the right move for Zenyatta and for her backers.
Like usual, for much of the race Zenyatta settled in at the back of the pack. But as they entered the stretch, she was in the unfamiliar position of being on the rail inside horses.  By the time the field had straightened out, Smith had Zenyatta in a clear path outside the majority of the field and ready to roll.
With 100 yards left, only Gio Ponti was left in front of the mare and she took aim.
Gio Ponti, who went on to win three Eclipse Awards, didn’t have much of a chance as Zenyatta confirmed her greatness by flying him in the last 50 yards to win by a length with Twice Over in third.
The win made Zenyatta the first female to win the Classic and one of only three horses to win two different Breeders’ Cup races.
2009 BREEDERS’ CUP CLASSIC

“She had a reputation coming from the farm,” Shirreffs recently said. “They told us that she was really good, really special, but to imagine [when she first came to Shirreffs’ barn], that she could accomplish what she did in the beginning, no not at all.”
There was talk that Zenyatta would be retired after the win but it didn’t last for long. She came back the following March in the Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap and proved she hadn’t lost a step.
Smith weaved her through traffic in the stretch in a hand ride, flashing across the line with a deceptively easy 1 ¼-length margin.
Next, Zenyatta flew to Arkansas for her second attempt at the Apple Blossom. It was her first run on a non-synthetic surface since her 2008 win in the race. Just as she had in that win, Zenyatta proved that dirt was no problem as she pulled away to win by 4 ½ lengths, just a quarter-length less than the 2008 edition.
Like the previous two years, Zenyatta followed the same race schedule to the Breeders’ Cup in 2010. She won the Vanity by the same half-length margin she had won it by in 2008 and the Clement L. Hirsch was another nail-biter with a neck margin of victory. After winning her 19th straight race in the Lady’s Secret, Zenyatta headed to Churchill Downs for the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
From the beginning of the race, it was clear that the Breeders’ Cup Classic wouldn’t be a cakewalk for the mare.
Zenyatta broke slowly and quickly put lengths between herself and the rest of the field. At the first point of call, she was seven lengths behind the second-to-last place horse and 16 ¼ lengths behind the leader. She slowly closed the gap and after a mile had passed one horse, but it was clear she had her work cut out for her if she wanted to become a two-time Classic winner.
In the stretch, she was flying up the outside trying to catch Blame, who had seized the lead. Zenyatta nearly caught him but was a heartbreaking head behind at the finish line, spoiling her undefeated record as the rest of the field was 3 ½ lengths or more behind the pair.
Zenyatta retired after the race with $7,304,580 in earnings and four Eclipse Awards, including the 2010 Horse of the Year title. She returned to California with Shirreffs where she was paraded in December at Hollywood Park during a retirement ceremony. Fans were given a final chance to see her in a public appearance at Keeneland the night she landed in Lexington, Ky., before she moved to Lane’s End Farm, just down the road from Keeneland, to start her broodmare career.
Zenyatta has three foals on the ground now, and even though she’s not in Shirreffs’ barn anymore, the trainer still visits her at Lane’s End.
“She’s a happy girl [in retirement]. That’s one thing you can say about Zenyatta, she’s a happy girl,” Shirreffs said.
Zenyatta’s oldest foal, a 2-year-old Bernardini colt named Cozmic One, is currently with Shirreffs and is getting used to being a racehorse. Even though Cozmic One is only two, the trainer can see some similarities in the two.
COZMIC ONE AT SARATOGA

Photo by NYRA/Susie Raisher
“We’re really excited to have him in the barn. He’s been to the gate a few times, he’s worked a couple of halves, and he’s been getting to learn what it’s all about,” Shirreffs said. “I’m starting to see with Cozmic One that he’s starting to develop that big chest and shoulder that [Zenyatta] had.”
Zenyatta also has a yearling colt by Tapit named Ziconic who recently shipped down to Florida to start his early training. Her youngest foal, a filly by War Front, has been weaned and is still at Lane’s End.
Zenyatta was not bred this year but is scheduled to be bred again in 2015.