Zenyatta continues unbeaten run in Vanity Handicap
Like the star that she is, Zenyatta left it late to make the big entrance but the queen of American racing took her unbeaten record to 17 at Hollywood Park.
The mare is now one victory ahead of such luminaries of the US racing scene as Cigar, the Dubai World Cup and Breeders’ Cup Classic winner of the 1990s, and the 1948 Triple Crown winner Citation. Those who have been along for the ride with Zenyatta, like her trainer, John Shirreffs, know the script. That trademark late surge with which she cuts through her field like a rapier.
But this time it seemed as though she might have finally met her match in the Vanity Handicap, which she was trying to win for the third time. Mike Smith took up his accustomed position at the back of the pack on Zenyatta, fully 12 lengths off the pace that was being set by Miss Silver Brook and Cherryblossommiss and followed in third by Zenyatta’s stable companion, Zardana.
The leaders were still duelling down the back stretch but St Trinians was beginning to close for Martin Garcia on the run to the home turn. Garcia came four wide to hit the home stretch going easily.
Behind her, Smith was angling wide to get a run on Zenyatta. Yet she was still fully two lengths down as Zardana took the lead but was almost immediately collared by St Trinians, who was receiving 9lbs from Zenyatta, and showing no signs of stopping.
Now the giant Zenyatta began to cut down that lead with every ground-devouring stride - from a length-and-a-half, to a length, to a half-length, a neck and then victory by half-length. Fighting an almost losing battle with 12,000 bellowing voices in the grandstand, the course commentator cried out: “Stamp this day in your minds and hearts. The queen continues her legend.”
Reliving a moment that will surely stayed burned in his memory Smith told the Daily Racing Form “She got into that stride and she was there. I said, 'Give me one more' and she did.
“I knew [Garcia] would take me out wide and he did,” Smith explained. “She had to run to get by [St Trinians] and when she did she was still pricking her ears.”
A few yards away Mike Mitchell was coming to terms with just how close St Trinians had come to one of the biggest upsets in recent years. “I thought it would be a good horse race,” the trainer said. “I wanted my mare to win the race. I thought if she saw [Zenyatta] she'd have some fight in her. I knew my mare would dig in and she did. I was glad to be part of it.”
However, according to Smith, those who seek to defeat Zenyatta will have to dig even deeper. That includes Rachel Alexandra again. Her victory at Churchill Downs on Saturday breathes new life into the possibility of a first racecourse meeting between the two.
But Smith feels that after two races this season – Zenyatta won the Apple Blossom Invitational Handicap Oaklawn in April – she has not reached her peak.
"What's amazing about this race is that I think she needed the race," Smith said. "I think she had an easy race first time out and she got a really easy race at Oaklawn. I think this will put her back to the [form of the Breeders' Cup] Classic and maybe better, I hope. I think this race will really move her forward."
If Smith is right Zenyatta may yet make the greatest entrance of them all.
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