Zenyatta is ‘dynamite’ in latest workout
Zenyatta is good. No, Zenyatta may be one of the best we have seen.
John Shirreffs knows it and his worry is that the mare who goes to Churchill Downs in a fortnight to defend her unbeaten record knows it too. They say you cannot rush genius but when that genius is an athlete, human or equine, the coach or trainer has to make sure that the physical edge is not dulled because it all becomes too easy.
So, with that in mind, Shirreffs came up with a tried-and-trusted method used by trainers wanting to get a top horse primed for the main event. In effect tag-team galloping as he turned the s***w just a little more before Zenyatta defends her title in the Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 6th.
Shirreffs took Zenyatta out on to the track at Hollywood. It is a routine that the mare has grown used to in her four seasons of racing and familiarity can breed contempt. So, to bring a little edge to workout, the trainer brought two stablemates, Sarbonne and El Vino, both owned, like Zenyatta, by Jerry and Ann Moss. And, rather than have them upsides his star for the seven-furlong gallop, Shirreffs used them like a relay team ensuring both an even pace for the work and something different for Zenyatta to concentrate on.
Zenyatta, ridden by regular jockey Mike Smith, began at the six-furlong pole, about three lengths behind Sarbonne in the same stalking style that she runs in during her races. Smith had her at about the same distance down the backstretch as Sarbonne dropped aside and El Vino took up the pace-making role around the half-mile pole, leading Zenyatta by about two lengths on the turn.
Smith got Zenyatta to extend a little down the stretch and she caught El Vino close to the post, finishing just in front after another furlong. The time would not have had the clockers going too wild but Shirreffs reckoned that overnight rain had made the track tiring.
Anyway, his thoughts was more involved with ensuring that the mare’s mind, and body, were properly attuned for what could be the defining race of her career, maybe even his as well. “The main thing was we wanted her to stay focused for the seven-eighths of a mile,” Shirreffs said to the Daily Racing Form. “I didn’t want her to get to the lead at any time in the work and lose her focus, because she lets up.
“Each of them worked hard enough so they could stay in front. “I thought the synthetic track was soft, and when it’s like that they’re labouring a little more in the longer works,” he said. “You can’t skip over it.”
Smith looked like a man who could skip all the way to Churchill Downs as he called the work “dynamite” and said he felt that Zenyatta had much more to give. “I was moving a little toward the end, but she was well within herself,” the jockey said. “If I’d have reached back and asked for more, she would have given another one. She was still pricking her ears.”
Zenyatta may be the star of the show but Shirreffs knows that if she is to shine at Churchill it will have to be a team effort.
The European team for the Breeders’ Cup with the news that Sir Michael Stoute will be running Workforce in the Turf, providing that the ground does not turn too firm.
Workforce, the winner of the Derby at Epsom in the summer, returned to his best form when he won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp three weeks ago and his participation for the Turf was confirmed after he worked at Newmarket on Saturday morning.
The colt’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah, is enjoying a stellar season with the Group One victories of Frankel (in the Dewhurst Stakes) and Twice Over (in the Champion Stakes) last weekend taking his Group or Grade one total to 16, two short of his personal record set in 2003.
Midday, trained - like Frankel and Twice Over – by Henry Cecil, is on course to defend her crown in the Filly & Mare Turf and Proviso, who has come back to her best for Bill Mott, will be running in the Mile.
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