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Zenyatta bests Blame in 2010 Horse of the Year voting!
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. — Moments after the Eclipse Awards ended Monday night, Zenyatta owner Ann Moss came off the stage eager to call her mare in Kentucky. They keep in touch by video phone.
“I just can’t wait to tell her,” a beaming Moss said. “We won!”
Zenyatta beat Blame to win Horse of the Year, besting the only opponent ever to defeat her on the track.
The award caps a remarkable career for the popular Zenyatta, one of the sport’s greatest mares. She was 19-0 before losing her final race to Blame in the Breeders’ Cup Classic last November.
“This makes it all OK after getting beat last time,” said Mike Smith, Zenyatta’s jockey.
Zenyatta received 128 votes and Blame 102. Goldikova, the other nominee, received five votes for the National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.
Moss’ husband, Jerry, feared they might vote for Blame because of the head-to-head defeat last fall. Was he surprised to win?
“A little bit, because we lost the big race,” Moss said. “I guess it’s our turn in a way.”
Zenyatta was runner-up for Horse of the Year in 2008 and 2009.
“We always hoped,” Ann Moss said. “We hoped last year, and the year before that. We’re just so happy. She’s such a gift.”
Zenyatta’s three-year body of work and charismatic personality swayed voters her way. She has been racing’s leading lady and boosted its popularity, while Blame wasn’t widely known outside of the sport.
When video highlights of the three finalists were shown before the award was announced, the ballroom crowd reserved its applause for Zenyatta. And after the Mosses accepted the trophy, the crowd gave Team Zenyatta a standing ovation.
“We’re such a niche sport,” said Jerry Moss, a music executive. “The fact she transcended all that and people were interested in seeing her — she was a crossover hit.”
Zenyatta cost the Mosses only $60,000 when they purchased her as a yearling in 2005, and she went on to win 13 Grade 1 stakes, including five last year.
Blame ran against stronger competition than Zenyatta in 2010, and his wins included the Stephen Foster Handicap and the Whitney at Saratoga. But the 4-year-old colt finished second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, which may have lost him some votes.
Al Stall Jr., Blame’s trainer, said his camp wasn’t disappointed Zenyatta won.
“It just fell that way,” he said. “Nobody is surprised. She was the overwhelming favorite. She had transcendent powers we didn’t have.”
Zenyatta’s now at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky awaiting her first breeding date, with the stallion to be chosen in the next couple of weeks before she’s bred in late February, Jerry Moss said.
“She’s doing extremely well at Lane’s End,” Moss told the crowd. “Hey, you can look it up every day on Zenyatta.com.”
Ann Moss wore a tag for Zenyatta’s foal on her finger.
“As a broodmare she’s going to be fantastic, too,” Moss said. “I think she’ll pass on the greatness.”
Other Eclipse Award winners included Todd Pletcher as outstanding trainer, Ramon Dominguez as outstanding jockey, WinStar Farm as outstanding owner and Adena Springs as outstanding breeder.
Pletcher earned the trainer honor for the fifth time by finishing far ahead of the runner-up, Zenyatta trainer John Shirreffs, 168 votes to 28. Dominguez finished ahead of runner-up Garrett Gomez, 124-60. WinStar Farm edged Jerry and Ann Moss 100-81.
Blame was chosen top older male. Zenyatta was chosen top older female for the third year in a row.
“It has been just an unbelievably remarkable ride,” Jerry Moss said. “All the letters and postcards and photos and trophies and little emblems and poems we get every day from people all over the world — we’ve got to thank these fans. I hope as an industry we can keep these fans. She touched these people in a very special way. They all just loved her.”
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
Tags: Ann Moss, Blame, Horse of the Year, Horse of the Year 2010, Jerry Moss, Mike Smith, Zenyatta, Zenyatta Retired
Make sure you don’t miss out on watching Zenyatta going for 18 in a row. Visit TwinSpires on Saturday to catch all the action!
DEL MAR, Calif. – The only perception of a blemish on Zenyatta’s unbeaten record is the 2009 Clement Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar, a race she won by a head.
The performance has been on trainer John Shirreffs’s mind for months, in advance of Zenyatta’s scheduled appearance in the same race on Saturday, where she will attempt to win her 18th race.
The question centers on whether Zenyatta can handle Del Mar’s Polytrack synthetic surface as well as the Cushion Track synthetic surface at Hollywood Park, the Pro-Ride at Santa Anita, or the dirt at Oaklawn Park, the sites of her three previous Grade 1 wins this year.
Shirreffs has been so cautious that as of Thursday morning he had yet to fully commit Zenyatta to a start in the $300,000 Hirsch.
“We’re in countdown [mode], if things go well,” he said.
The trainer was content on Wednesday and Thursday, the two days Zenyatta galloped at Del Mar since arriving early Wednesday from Shirreffs’s year-round base at Hollywood Park. Still, Shirreffs said training over the surface is different from a race.
“You can gallop around here a 100 times and it will be the same,” Shirreffs said. “It’s a matter of how she’ll handle it at racing speed. No one can predict that until it happens.”
The Grade 1 Hirsch will be Zenyatta’s first start at 1 1/16 miles since the Grade 1 Lady’s Secret Stakes at Santa Anita last October. Since then, she has raced over 1 1/8 and 1/4 miles, including an historic win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita last November, becoming the first female to win that race.
In 2008, Zenyatta won the Hirsch by a length. Last year, she closed from last in a field of seven to win, making up 13 lengths before catching the outside Anabaa’s Creation. Mike Smith was aboard for those wins and has the mount on Saturday.
“It was desperate in margin, it was just a [head],” Smith said of the 2009 Hirsch. “It wasn’t desperate in as far as being all out. She was hitting her best stride at the wire. She was just hitting another gear. I felt pretty confident that she’d get there.”
Last year, Smith thought Zenyatta’s win in the Hirsch, her third of 2009, propelled the mare to better form for the rest of the season. This year, he said her most recent start, a hard-fought half-length win over St. Trinians in the Grade 1 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park on June 13, may have the same effect.
Shirreffs agrees with that theory, and said the Vanity Handicap did not take a negative toll on Zenyatta.
“She had to be challenged, and St. Trinians challenged her,” Shirreffs said. “It was a good race. The race didn’t set her back.”
The Hirsch Stakes could be Zenyatta’s final start in California. The Beldame Stakes at Belmont Park in October is being considered as a prep to the BC Classic at Churchill Downs in November, which will be her final start before retirement.
Tags: Clement Hirsch Stakes, Del Mar, John Shirreffs, Mike Smith, Zenyatta
We almost had it begged with Lookin At Lucky and Jackson Bend! The order of finish for the 2010 135th running of the Preakness Stakes is as follows:
Tags: Bob Baffert, First Dude, Jackson Bend, Lookin At Lucky, Martin Garica, Mike Smith, Preakness Order of Finish, Preakness Past Performances, Preakness Race Replay, Preakness Replay, Preakness Stakes, Preakness Video
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