Santa Anita: Zenyatta statue unveiled prior to running of stakes in her honor

Benoit & Associates

Nina Kaiser's life-size statue of Zenyatta at Santa Anita.

ARCADIA, Calif. - Zenyatta is back at Santa Anita - or at least a life-size bronze statue of the 2010 Horse of the Year.

Saturday at Santa Anita, a statue of Zenyatta was unveiled before an enthusiastic crowd of her supporters in the track’s picturesque paddock garden.

Owners Jerry and Ann Moss were on hand to see the unveiling of the work of noted sculptress Nina Kaiser.

“It’s beautiful,” Jerry Moss said. “Nina did an outstanding job.”

Ann Moss described the statue as “such an honor. She looks fabulous. She deserves it.”

Zenyatta won 19 of 20 starts in a career that spanned from 2007 to 2010. She won her first 19 races, most in California. During her winning streak, she won six races at Santa Anita. The most memorable of those was a win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic against males in 2009.

Trained by John Shirreffs, Zenyatta finished second in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in her final start.

Now an 8-year-old, Zenyatta resides in Kentucky as a broodmare. She produced a Bernardini colt earlier this year who has since been weaned. She was bred back to Tapit earlier this year, and has been pronounced in foal.

The Bernardini colt is “running around with other horses his age,” Jerry Moss said.

No names have been chosen, but that is on the minds of Jerry and Ann Moss.

“Every day we think about it,” Jerry Moss said. “It keeps us up late at night.”

Zenyatta is one of three horses to be honored with a statue in Santa Anita’s paddock gardens, joining 1930s star Seabiscuit and 1980s star John Henry.

Later on Saturday, Santa Anita ran the Grade 1 Zenyatta Stakes for fillies and mares, a race formerly known as the Lady’s Secret Stakes.

Zenyatta won the Lady’s Secret Stakes from 2008-2010.