On Saturday thoroughbred mare Zenyatta made sure her name would echo throughout the future decades in the minds of racing fans by becoming the first female to beat males in the Breeders Cup Classic. Not only did she beat the boys, but Zenyatta kept her record fourteen wins from fourteen starts intact while doing so. Only one other horse in recent history has retire undefeated and that was Personal Ensign with her thirteen wins in thirteen starts and only against other females.


The Early Years:

Zenyatta's career did not start out like most typical Thoroughbred race horses by starting at the age of two in allowance races, no Zenyatta did not hear the crowd of the track until late in her three year old season. Trainer John Shirreffs chose late November at Hollywood Park to show racing fans his wonderful mare who would win and then came back in early December to win yet again. On January 13th 2008 Zenyatta made her first graded stakes debut in the Grade 2 El Encino Stakes at Santa Anita Park. After the race Shirreffs was quoted saying " She hasn’t uncorked her big stride yet, so we’re still waiting for that." Quotes similar to this would be recorded throughout this mare's brief yet amazing career. Next up on Zenyatta's campaign was the Grade 1 Apple Blossom at Oaklawn Park on April 5th where she would meet up with 2007 Eclipse Award winning mare Ginger Punch. Ms. Punch was the favorite to win the Apple Blossom, but in the end she fell victim to the quick turn of foot and long strides of the dark bay mare named Zenyatta and had to settle for third place. After blowing away the champion old mare and winning a grade 1 stakes in the process it was decided to launch Zenyatta on an Eclipse Award bid of her own without uncorking that big stride"


On the road to a 2008 Eclipse:


Shirreffs decided to take his huge mare back to her stomping grounds at Hollywood park where she would yet again blow her rivals away in the Grade 2 Milady Handicap after a bumped start and a nice hand ride by jockey Mike Smith in May. After that win Zenyatta and company entered into the Grade 1 Vanity Handicap in July at Hollywood which she won just as she did her previous starts. Next stop Del Mar and the Grade 2 Clement L Hirsch which the mare with the huge strides won setting a new track record of 1:41.48 for 8.5 furlongs. After that Zenyatta moved on to the Grade 1 Lady's Secret Stakes at Santa Anita on September 27 which was set to be somewhat of a match race between Zen and Hystericalady. Zenyatta unleashed her long stride and ran each quarter of that race faster than the one before and swept by Hystericalady as if she was just another claiming horse in over her head. Her 2008 season would end with Ms. Zen being the 1-2 favorite for the Grade 1 Breeders Cup Ladies' Classic at Santa Anita. Jockey Mike Smith and Zenyatta would win the race in her now classic style by sitting off the pace in the back of the pack causing her backers to sweat in fear that she would not win and as she rounded the last turn she would unleash her powerful stride taking her competition out one by one as if they were just cars spinning their wheels. With her win in the 2008 Breeder Cup Ladies Classic she was awarded her Eclipse Award as American Champion Older Female Horse. To add to that on the 15th of the January 2009 it was announced that she had won the NTRA "Moment of the Year" for 2008 as well. At this point Zenyatta's full stride had not been witnessed according to both trainer and jockey


The 2009 Season:


Zenyatta was scheduled to make her 2009 debut in the Louisville Distaff on the first Saturday in May, but due the heavy rains in Louisville her trainer decided to scratch the mare and bring her back to California. On same weekend that Zenyatta scratched a rival was born in Rachel Alexandra and thus would start the summer long battle between West Coast Zenyatta fans and East Coast Rachel Alexandra fans. Zenyatta ended up making her '09 debut in the Grade 2 Milady on May 23rd carrying 126 lbs and defeating her highly touted stablemate Life Is Sweet. June 27th showed Zenyatta carrying a high weight of 129 lbs which was 13 to 18 more pounds than her rivals in the Vanity Handicap. She would win this race becoming the first horse to win under such a weight assignment since 1977, but according to Rachel fans this was not enough to seperate the two. She followed that up with another win in the now Grade 1 Clement L Hirsch handicap on August 9th, but she one by only a head after this race she tied Personal Ensign at 13 for 13 in the Lady's Secret on October 10th


The Dream Match Race:


Throughout Zenyatta's 2009 campaign the choice to keep her in the west revisiting rivals she had already beaten would not be enough to say that she was indeed a great race horse. Many wanted to see a match race between Ms. Zen and Ms. Alexandra to see who indeed was the better female of the race world, but this would never materialize when the owner of Rachel Alexandra announced that she would not attend to the 2009 Breeders Cup due to the synthetic surface. Rachel's owner put fans at ease by adding that Rachel would be back in 2010 and if Zenyatta still wanted a piece of her than she better come ready. Zenyatta's owner (Jerry Moss) announced that after the 2009 Breeders Cup Zenyatta would retire and not race in 2010. Thus ending every racing fan's fantasy of a match race between recent history's two power house females.

The Ladies' or The Classic?

With Rachel gone from the BC most thought the two day event would lack any star power or drama, but Mr. Moss kept fans on edge by entering his big mare in both the Classic and Ladies' Classic. Which would she run in? Would she take the easy route and race against her own gender to try a second win? What if she got beat against the ladies, would it be better if she was beat by the males? Could she beat the males in her first try against them and against such a high caliber of males? What about the distance of the Classic of 10 furlongs, could the mare stretch out to this distance? With these questions the October handicapper blogs were quite lively and the Wednesday before the big weekend all were in the know that Zenyatta would try to beat males for the first time in her career at a distance she had never been tried at in the Classic. Trainer Shirreffs told the public that he believed his mare had what it took to beat the boys and that she could get the distance since she was always still speeding up when winning at shorter distances and that he was very confident in Mr. Moss' decision to put her against the males.

Classic Way to Retire

Saturday November 7th 2009 Zenyatta became the first female to win the $5 million Grade 1 Breeders Cup Classic against such competition as top 3 year old Summer Bird, top European winners Rip Van Winkle and Twice Over, top older male Einstein, top turf specialist Gio Ponti and other great males such as Colonal John, Mine That Bird, Richard's Kid, Awesome Gem and Regal Ransome (Quality Road was scratched after some starting gate drama he roused up). The crowds (her loving fans) cheered, clapped and waved as the big dark brown filly unleashed that powerful closing kick she was known for to defeat the field and gobbled ground, geldings, colts and stallions alike as she came galloping to that finish line in her final career start. I think jockey Mike Smith and trainer John Shirreffs summed this event up best: When the crowd of 58,825 started screaming, "She thought maybe I should stop and pose again," Smith said. "She started pricking her ears and looking at the crowd, and I got after her a little bit, and she went on. And she still went, believe it or not, well within herself. She was pricking her ears and galloped out. She didn't even take a breath after the race was over. It's just incredible." and :There are tears coming to my eyes," Shirreffs said. "I can’t believe it. She is a great, great filly. She is all heart. The way the crowd took to her was just amazing. They cheered for her; they love her. What a wonderful relationship."


Congratulations Zenyatta and good luck to you in the 2009 Eclipse Award polls as well as your retirement!