Zenyatta Improves to 15-0 -- Sprints Towards Oaklaw on April 9th

[Dirty]

Zenyatta gets job done yet again




ARCADIA, Calif. -- Zenyatta displayed her brilliance, and continued perfection, in Saturday's $250,000 Santa Margarita Handicap at Santa Anita, extending her winning streak to 15 races. In her first start since a historic win in the Breeders' Cup Classic here in November, Zenyatta used her customary come-from-behind style to win the Santa Margarita by a comfortable 1 1/4 lengths over 51-1 Dance to My Tune. To remain unbeaten after 15 starts, jockey Mike Smith improvised through the final quarter-mile. Instead of bringing Zenyatta to the outside, where she has typically rolled home past her overmatched rivals in the last few years, Smith guided the 6-year-old mare through traffic and reached the front just past the sixteenth pole. Smith did not strike Zenyatta with his whip. He did not need to. "I wish I could say I contributed," Smith said. "I might have done a little steering, but that was about it." The victory put Zenyatta on course for the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park on April 9, where she may face the 2009 Horse of the Year, Rachel Alexandra. Minutes before Zenyatta's win, Rachel Alexandra was beaten in her 2009 debut in the New Orleans Ladies by Zardana, who like Zenyatta is trained by John Shirreffs. In the Grade 1 Santa Margarita, Zenyatta ($2.60) ran 1 1/8 miles in 1:48.20, while carrying top weight of 127 pounds. She was last in a field of eight to the final turn, when Smith guided Zenyatta inside of Pretty Unusual and began closing ground. Zenyatta had moved past the back of the field and into fifth place with a furlong remaining. Extending her stride through the stretch, Zenyatta quickly closed on leader Dance to My Tune and reached the front when Smith guided her to the outside of that mare before the sixteenth pole. The style of the win left trainer John Shirreffs stunned. "Isn't it amazing?" Shirreffs said. "I have so much faith in Mike. When you have a big X on your back, things don't always happen. You find yourself in places in races you need to get away from." Dance to My Tune, the longest shot in the field, set fractions of 23.88 and 47.69 seconds and ran on late to finish second, a nose in front of Floating Heart. Trained by Jerry Hollendorfer, Dance to My Tune was sixth in the minor Wishing Well Handicap on Feb. 12. "When [Zenyatta] was blocked, we had a chance, but it didn't last very long," said Hollendorfer's assistant, Dan Ward. "She couldn't have run better - couldn't ask for more than that." Floating Heart ran credibly, considering she seemed agitated in the saddling enclosure, where hundreds of fans were watching Zenyatta's every move. Floating Heart, trained by Todd Pletcher, was third in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes for 4-year-old fillies here on Feb. 14. "I think we needed to be realistic," said Pletcher's assistant, Michael McCarthy. "This is what we were hoping for. It's nice to finish within two lengths of [Zenyatta]." Zenyatta earned $150,000, improving her career earnings to $5,624,580. "She's a super athlete," Shirreffs said. "She can do it all. How are you going to be better than perfect?" Despite the drama through the stretch, Smith is convinced that Zenyatta was not fully extended in the Santa Margarita. "I wanted her to have an easy race, her first race back and carrying 127," he said. "I don't know what to say," Smith said. "I'm her biggest fan, and I have the best seat in the house." "I think she'll get something out of it. She wasn't really tired at all. It's as easy of a race as she's had. It's just phenomenal."


Santa Margarita: Zenyatta gets job done yet again - ESPN

[Dirty]

Zenyatta 'will run' at Oaklawn




ARCADIA, Calif. -- On a cloudy afternoon at Santa Anita Race Course, trainer John Shirreffs sent a message to fellow horseman Steve Asmussen. Mano a mano, game on.
The message came courtesy of not one, but two big bay mares -- first when the unheralded Zardana beat 2009 Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra in Louisiana at Fair Grounds Race Course, and second when champion older mare Zenyatta won in California at Santa Anita to extend her record to 15-for-15. "California's tough ... we're tough. Don't take us short," Shirreffs said following Zenyatta's score in the 1 1/8-mile Santa Margarita Invitational (G1). It is all systems go for Team Zenyatta en route to the April 9 Apple Blossom Invitational at Oaklawn Park, a race the 6-year-old mare won in 2008 and has been pointing toward since the beginning of the year. But the likelihood of Rachel Alexandra making that highly anticipated meeting in Hot Springs, Ark., remains in question after her finish three-quarters of a length behind Shirreff's Brazilian invader Zardana, a 9-1 shot making her first start on dirt since 2007 in her native country. Zenyatta ran to victory in the Santa Margarita after trailing the field in her signature style, dodging to the rail and inhaling the front-runner, 50-1 Dance to My Tune, before going on to win by a 1¼-length margin. Rachel Alexandra sat just behind the pace-setting Fighter Wing in the New Orleans Ladies while jockey Calvin Borel reined her in until moving to the lead after the half-mile, but Zardana ranged up three-wide to take the victory by three-quarters of a length for owner Arnold Zetcher. "My little filly tried hard. She needed the race, that's all," Borel said. "She needed the race more than anything. I wanted to let her run her race early but they wanted me to wait. I wanted to go on past the speed horse early; I'd have got by her anytime and my filly could have gone on, but they wanted me to wait and not get into her until the 16th pole." "She's not where I thought she was and if I'd thought she'd get beat she wouldn't have run," Asmussen told reporters after the daughter of Medaglia d'Oro lost the 1 1/16-mile New Orleans Ladies. "The filly's lacking fitness. It was my job to have her there, and I didn't do it." Ironically, Jess Jackson's Horse of the Year could play the underdog going into her next race. Meanwhile, Zenyatta came one win closer to eclipsing the record of victories by a Thoroughbred racehorse (19, set by Pepper's Pride in 2008). She is one win away from ranking with horses like Cigar and Citation, who both remained unbeaten to 16 wins. "I don't know what to say, I'm like a fan," Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith beamed following the big mare's 2010 debut performance. "This was a great, great race for her and it wasn't taxing at all. We got enough out of this race to move forward." "Zenyatta will run in the Apple Blossom regardless," Shirreffs said of the big Street Cry runner. "[She] came back so we could have some fun with her and other fans could see her. That was the whole thing. She'll go back to Hollywood [Park] and get ready for Oaklawn." "We're just excited that she's back," owner Jerry Moss told HRTV's Millie Ball. "She looks amazing and everybody's happy. We watched [the New Orleans Ladies] in the paddock and I'm sorry [Rachel] lost but she lost to a better horse today and we'll see what happens in the next race." According to Asmussen, whether that next race will be the Apple Blossom for Rachel Alexandra remains to be determined. "No crystal ball could see that far ahead. I'm definitely going to be cautious," he said. Claire Novak has melded her love for human-interest journalism and the equine breed into a successful turf writing career. Winner of the 2008 Louisville Metro Journalism Award for Sports Writing, she maintains connections with organizations such as The Associated Press, Blood-Horse Publications and the NTRA. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter, @ClaireNovak.


Zenyatta 'will run' April 9; Rachel not certain - ESPN