Zenyatta comes through final workout in flying form
She is ready. That was the verdict of jockey Mike Smith after he rode Zenyatta in her final work at Hollywood Park before she travels to Kentucky.
The queen of American racing will be defending her crown when she runs in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs next Saturday and Smith believes that anyone reckoning on ending her unbeaten streak in what will be her 20th, and final, career start had better be ready for a battle. And a big one.
Following the same routine as when she worked eight days previously Zenyatta’s trainer, John Shirreffs, used two stable companions in what could be described as a tag-team gallop. Each went part way with the mare to give her work more zest. And, according to Smith, it worked just fine.
Once gain it was Sarbonne and El Vino both owned, like Zenyatta, by Jerry and Ann Moss, who were tasked with the job of helping Shirreff’s bring Zenyatta to the concert pitch that will be required if she is to become only the second Classic winner – following Tiznow in 2000 2001 – to successfully defend the title. It would also be a third consecutive victory at the Breeders’ Cup meeting for Zenyatta, adding to her victory in the Ladies Classic in 2008.
Sarbonne took Zenyatta down the back stretch about four lengths ahead to give Zenyatta something to chase and when Sarbonne’s job was done, El Vino was brought into action. Already in full stride, El Vino took up the baton from before the home turn until Zenyatta, as in her usual running style, came three wide to catch El Vino and finish the six-furlong work a neck in front, stopping the clock at 1minute 11.80seconds.
A week before the biggest race his season, Smith was unlikely to give anything but an upbeat bulletin. But there was no disguising the fact that he was truly impressed with what Zenyatta had just done. “Look at her – 1:11 and four,” Smith said to the Daily Racing Form. “I thought it was brilliant, better than last year before the Classic.”
There are those who say that Zenyatta will need to be better than last year when she takes on the likes of Blame, Quality Road and Lookin At Lucky but Smith was more interested in his mare than the opposition, much as he respects them.
“She’ll be ready to go a mile-and-a-quarter,” he said, adding of the way Zenyatta picked up in the second half of the work “I bowed forward and whoom, she caught up. They were running good together and went through the wire.”
Shirreffs, who rarely makes much noise when it comes to talking about his horses, felt that the team workout had achieved the objectives that he had sought. To make sure that he has Zenyatta fully wound up for what will be the defining race of her career, without going the step too far that would leave her race at Hollywood Park.
“We wanted a fresh horse at the end of the workout,” Shirreffs said. “We wanted her to finish. We’re ready - done and happy. Now, it’s just a matter of making sure things go smoothly.”
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