Zenyatta ‘couldn't be training any better’
When Zenyatta lost out to Rachel Alexandra in the vote for the 2009 Horse of the Year title one of the reasons that was put forward was that her record was built on races run on synthetic tracks rather than the traditional dirt tracks on which America bases its racing heritage.
Her trainer, John Shirreffs, has always believed that the mare – who has a perfectly standard dirt pedigree – would never have any problems when the time came to run on a main track that was dirt rather than synthetic, and she has proved it with two victories in the Grade One Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park.
Sure, now do it when it matters is the call from the naysayers.
Well, Zenyatta –followed by an entourage of connections, media and general public that would do credit to a visiting head of state – paid a visit to the main track at Churchill Downs three days before she defends her unbeaten 19-race winning streak and her title in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday night.
Aside from Mike Smith, who will be in the saddle when the gates crash open came race time, no-one knows the feeling that comes up through the reins from Zenyatta better than Steve Willard. He is the mare’s work rider and his reaction to her workout suggested that those banking on the favourite not handling the track were on the wrong track themselves.
“She's terrific," Willard said. "She couldn't be training any better. She loves the dirt. She drives off it. It doesn't have the trampoline effect like the synthetics."
Riding work is a subtle art in itself. While the jockey’s job is done if the race is won, the work rider has to bring the horse to the right condition without stepping over the line that leaves the race on the training track.
Willard came away from his morning’s work with the belief that the job was done and Zenyatta was almost ready to hand over to Smith to finish the job, the unbeaten career record and securing Zenyatta’s place on the pantheon of great racehorses.
“She’s training very forwardly,” Willard said to the Throughbred Times. “I knew about the third step, I was in for a ride. Usually, she trains like a pussycat. Today she was like ‘vroom’.”
“She was nice and straight and she was pulling me enough to make it halfway comfortable, but I couldn’t bow over her and put my hands on her because then she would have been gone. She was just eager because she was fresh. She wanted to go; and so we went.”
Willard had also galloped Zenyatta at Oaklawn Park and when Shirreffs took her to Churchill for last year’s Louisville Stakes, for which she was a late scratch. He got the same feeling then as the powerful mare seemed to get more purchase on the dirt than she does when she runs on the synthetic surfaces of her native California.
“She drives better off the dirt,” he said. “She feels better on dirt than she does on synthetic. I knew that the first time I put her on dirt [at Oaklawn]. By the time I hit the far turn, I said, ‘It’s all over.’ I came back grinning like a cheshire cat.”
Shirreffs tends to save his grinning for after the race is won but he could not conceal his enthusiasm for what he had watched. “I thought she looked great on the track,” he said. “She handled it very well and was really happy to get out there.
“Obviously, there is a little bit of anticipation, but I think everyone is pretty relaxed. Zenyatta is doing great. She looked great on the track and she shipped in wonderfully. That part is all good so now it is just the excitement and the energy that surrounds a Breeders’ Cup event. Everybody sort of gets involved in it. We have our routine that we follow all the time and that kind of grounds us.”
Shirreffs is not about to become drawn into discussions on which horses, if any, he fears from the Classic field. “I think if Zenyatta runs her race, we’re going to be happy with that,” he said.
After what Zenyatta had just done, he had plenty of grounds for hope.
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