Crossposted from my article at http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/110610a.html.
The horseracing world is holding its collective breath for a true superstar.
Zenyatta is about to do what no horse has done — not Secretariat, not Cigar, not Seabiscuit, and not even Man O’War — since 1874: be undefeated in 20 outings. This is the last race she will ever run. She’s 19-0. Can she win one more time?
Even trainers with colts running against her hope that if they lose, it’s to her. “Once she comes past your horse,” competing trainer Bob Baffert told the Telegraph, “you start rooting for her.”
The record is held, ironically, by an outstanding but little-discussed mare named Kincsem from Hungary, who won 54 victories in a row. But for all her victories, Kincsem didn’t race past the age of five.
Zenyatta is a six-year-old mare who faces the best of the best in the Breeder’s Cup Classic for a mile and a quarter, the same distance as the Kentucky Derby, run on the same track as the Derby — Churchill Downs in Louisville.
She won this race last year (and won me a little money in the process) against the boys — the first mare to do so. But can she still beat the teenage-like three-year-olds when she’s already middle-aged, in racehorse terms?
She does tower over them, and I don’t mean that metaphorically. She stands an impressive 17.2 hands high, nearly a foot taller than her competitors.
So famous that “60 Minutes” aired a segment about her last Sunday, Zenyatta seems poised to race her way into the record books tonight. She’s already raced her way into many hearts.
At Hollywood Park recently, hundreds of bettors waited a long time in the sun to have Zenyatta’s regular jockey, Mike Smith, sign commemorative mugs honoring the mare.
Where many of her challengers are famously high-strung, Zenyatta is remarkably calm, almost humble. But don’t be deceived by her demeanor. Her jockey Smith has described her on “60 Minutes” as “a loaded gun – if you pull the trigger, she’s going to fire.”
After her come-from-12-lenths-behind run in the Breeder’s Cup last year, Smith said she wasn’t even breathing hard, noting “I’ve never gotten to the bottom of her. We don’t even know how many gears she has.”
Maybe her Zen-like attitude can be attributed to the occasional treat her trainer gives her: beer. Zenyatta is a genuine Guiness lover. Her trainer, Vietnam Vet John Shirreffs, said he tried other beers, but she only likes the hearty Irish stout.
Zenyatta is a tease. Like Secretariat, she tends to come from behind, biding her time until the home stretch, and then shifting into what seems an impossibly higher gear to outrun her competitors. This leaves her fans holding their breath each time she runs, wondering if she’ll manage to make it to the front.
Read the rest at http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/110610a.html.
