"5/10"!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Superstar Zenyatta makes it 17 straight wins
Report: USA, Sunday
Hollywood Park: Vanity Handicap (Grade 1) 1m1f, AW, 3yo+
THE invincible Zenyatta (John Shirreffs/Mike Smith), surely as thrilling a racehorse as we are likely to see, took her unbeaten record to 17 races on Sunday with a dramatic last-gasp victory in the Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park on Sunday.
Sent off 1-2 favourite as she conceded weight all round in the Grade 1 event, the celebrated six-year-old daughter of Street Cry scored by a half-length over formerly British-trained St Trinians to surpass the 16-win streak achieved by those twin US greats, the Triple Crown winner Citation and usual horse of the year Cigar.
However, the bare facts of the result conceal a multitude, for Zenyatta gave her legion of fans a major fright before completing a hat-trick in the $250,000 event at her home track.
Having trailed the field throughout in typical fashion, the spectacular Breeders’ Cup Classic winner commenced her move on the far turn.
Although she closed readily, Zenyatta was forced more than four horses wide into the stretch as 2-1 chance St Trinians launched a powerful bid to spoil the party and set for home in determined style.
Still two and a half lengths clear at the furlong pole, St Trinians was showing nosigns whatsoever of stopping and for once jockey Smith had to ask some serious questions on Zenyatta, whose giant stride was devouring the stretch.
Nevertheless, her unbeaten record looked in real jeopardy this time until her trademark late charge swamped the gallant runner-up close home to record her 11th Grade 1 success for her owners Ann and Jerry Moss (the ‘M’ of the A&M record label).
The post-race cheers from a adulatory crowd of 12,213 – a 200 per cent increase on regular Sundays – must surely have been as much in relief as celebration.
Indeed, the coolest man on the track may well have been Zenyatta’s trainer John Shirreffs, who also saddled third-placed Zardana, the mare who floored Rachel Alexandra at Fair Grounds in New Orleans back in March.
“I’ve just got great faith in her,” said Shirreffs. “She just finds a way to win – you know, she has this tremendous finishing kick.
“I was just watching the race unfold and hoping to see her make her big run,” he added. “It’s a horse race and they have to fight it out down there at the wire.”
Shirreffs said he was just waiting for Zenyatta to engage overdrive in the stretch drive. “I was watching the distance between her and St Trinians and it seemed to stay the same,” he admitted.
“I thought, ‘well, the margin is staying the same and Zenyatta hasn’t made her kick, so she should cut into it.”
For his part, owner Moss also claimed not to have been overly worried about the prospect of defeat.
“I had a feeling she was going to make it somehow like she always does,” he said.
“She won, she got there, she gave away 9lb, she came about seven wide – she’s just awesome.”
Although Zenyatta stands alone among top-level performers, she is two adrift of the overall modern record for an American-trained racehorse as the lowly mare Peppers Pride won 19 consecutive restricted state-bred events in New Mexico between 2005-08.
Incredibly, her jockey Mike Smith reckons there may be even more to come. “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 (Breeders’ Cup) Classic and maybe better, I hope. I think this race will really move her forward.”
Rather like his mount, Smith rather played to the crowd after the race, parading Zenyatta in front of the stands and holding his cap to theheavens.
“It’s just incredible,” he said. “It was a great, great race – and it was a gallant effort on St Trinians’ part. She ran huge.
“When weheaded for home I hit a real big gear and she hit another one right back at me, and I said, ‘Whoa, she’s serious, she’s going to make me run’.
“I was working at it until the last 100 yards and then I knew I’d outgrind her. We’re carrying a lot of weight so I just wanted to get that momentum to kind of slingshot me even though I was a little wide, to get her running.”
The runner-up won three all-weather races at Wolverhampton for former trainer Ed Vaughan before moving to the States, where she won her first four starts, culminating in a Grade 2 victory over Zenyatta’s stablemate, the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic winner Life Is Sweet.
In receipt of 9lb, St Trinians proved anything but a soft touch. “I couldn’t have asked for anymore,” said her rider Martin Garcia. “The other horse is just too much horse.”
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Topic Author
