Ann and Jerry Moss will breed their popular 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta to Tapit this year, according to an announcement the couple posted March 22 at Zenyatta.com.

LEXINGTON, Ky. − For fans of Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta, 2012 has been a special year. Both mares, voted Horse of the Year in 2009 and 2010, respectively − produced their first foals on central Kentucky farms. The transition from racemare to broodmare usually takes place well out of the spotlight, and many successful female racing stars fade from view once they arrive at the private breeding farms for their new careers.

ARCADIA, Calif. – A poster of Zenyatta and her recently born first foal, a colt by Bernardini, will be given away at Santa Anita on Saturday as part of what the track is calling a “baby shower.”

In addition to the poster, members of Zenyatta’s inner circle – expected to include owners Jerry and Ann Moss, trainer John Shirreffs, and jockey Mike Smith – will be available for an autograph session beginning at 11:30 a.m., one hour before first post.

Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, author of Zenyatta’s “diary” at Zenyatta.com, will put the blog on hiatus after the March 13 post.

Ann and Jerry Moss’s popular 8-year-old mare gave birth to her first foal, a 130-pound Bernardini colt, on March 8. Ingordo-Shirreffs, the Mosses’ racing manager and wife of Zenyatta’s trainer John Shirreffs, said she’s decided to end the diary “because it was full circle of her being a foal and now having a foal.”

LEXINGTON, Ky. – The birth of Zenyatta’s 130-pound Bernardini colt, the mare’s first, took place in an unusually heated atmosphere as the 2010 Horse of the Year’s fans took to the Internet in droves, speculating and fretting publicly over this important first in the mare’s new career as a broodmare at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Ky. The horsemen in attendance for the colt’s birth say the event went as routinely as any other foaling, but they acknowledge that the first delivery by one of the world’s most popular racemares was anything but a routine event for all concerned.

The wife of trainer John Shirreffs, she has been the racing manager for Jerry and Ann Moss, the owners of Zenyatta, since 1984 and is the successor trustee of the estate of the late Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel

Family: husband, John Shirreffs; son, David Ingordo

When last we visited the agonies of Nina Kaiser, she was tearing at her close-cropped hair over the finer points of a life-size sculpture of two-time Horse of the Year and all-around folk hero John Henry. Figuring the eyes of racing history were looking over her shoulder at every turn, Kaiser was appropriately intimidated, but somehow she came through, as anyone will testify who has seen the final product presiding over the north rim of the Kingsbury Fountain in the paddock gardens of Santa Anita Park.

Female runners who typified the depth of the division in their eras (wins over males in bold).

1944-46

Twilight Tear
1944 Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old filly, Hall of Fame
Major wins:
1944 – Pimlico Special, Washington Park Classic, CCA Oaks, Acorn Stakes, Pimlico Oaks

Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year and the only mare to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, is in foal after a second mating to Bernardini.

The mare’s pregnancy was confirmed on a website written by Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, purportedly in the mare’s “voice,” after vets performed an ultrasound Tuesday morning. Ingordo-Shirreffs is an adviser to the mare’s owners, Jerry and Ann Moss.

Zenyatta, the 2011 Horse of the Year, is no longer in foal after five weeks of pregnancy and will be bred to Bernardini again next week, according to Mike Cline, the manager of Lane's End Farm, where the seven-year-old mare is boarded.

"She came up empty on a 35-day [pregnancy] check today," Cline said. "It's not uncommon. It's unfortunate, but she's healthy, she's doing great, and we expect her to get back in foal."