Zenyatta wins at Del Mar
Zenyatta maintained her unbeaten career record when she won the Grade One Clement L Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar.
The story running into the race had been whether the mare’s trainer, John Shirreffs, would actually let Zenyatta run. Although she came to the Hirsch having won the race for the past two years the fact that she had only won by a head 12 months previously had been a source of concern to Shirreffs.
More pointedly he worried about whether Zenyatta truly acted on the track’s Polytrack surface. “You can gallop around here a 100 times and it will be the same,” he had said. “It’s a matter of how she’ll handle it at racing speed. No-one can predict that until it happens.”
However, after much deliberation when the trainer again inspected the state of the track in the morning, Shirreffs decided to allow Zenyatta to take her place in the field of six for which she was the heavy market leader. She came into the parade ring, with her trademark high-stepping gait, to greater applause than most horses receive for passing the post first at Del Mar.
There was even a Zenyatta tribute video which was played on the course in the minutes before the race, which was probably just what the riders of the other five runners needed before they were loaded into the starting gates.
Mike Smith allowed Zenyatta to take her place at the rear of the field heading on the run to the first turn, where Rinterval led Princess Taylor and Dance To My Tune. Zenyatta was about six lengths off the pace down the back stretch, ears pricked and running on a long rein, until Smith began to make his move with about four furlongs to run.
Zenyatta had to come well wide into the top of the home stretch and she did not pull away from the field as easily as might have been expected. Indeed, Rinterval kept chasing her all the way to the line to take second, with Princess Taylor third, but Smith never looked like he was pressing Zenyatta for everything through the final furlong as she claimed her 18th career win by a head.
It was the mare’s fourth Grade One victory of the year, having already won the Santa Margarita Handicap, the Apple Blossom Handicap and the Vanity Handicap and Smith was almost incredulous at the manner of the performance. “She literally was playing,” he said. “I hit the front too soon, and when she gets to the front she wants to salute the fans.”
Jerry and Ann Moss, the owners of Zenyatta, reversed their earlier decision to retire Zenyatta at the end of last season and have had no reason to regret that change of heart. As Mrs Moss said: “She brings joy and she has fun with it – we’re just glad to be a part of it. What do you say? She has wings on her feet.”
Shirreffs has spoken of a programme that would include one more race before Zenyatta attempts to defend her title in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November.
He has two races in mind, the Zenyatta Stakes at Santa Anita (which previously called the Lady’s Secret Stakes) or the Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park, both of which are run on October 2nd.
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