Cozmic One set to make much-anticipated career debut

ARCADIA, Calif. – Last winter, when Cozmic One, the first foal from 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, worked in company with a stablemate, jockey Victor Espinoza recalls the exercise did not always go well.

Sometimes, Cozmic One struggled to keep pace.

“He’s a big horse,” Espinoza said last weekend. “When we tried to work him a half-mile at the beginning, he couldn’t keep up. But when they went farther, it was the other way around.”

The hints of stamina led trainer John Shirreffs to delay the start of Cozmic One’s career. The colt’s highly anticipated debut will occur in Friday’s second race at Santa Anita, a maiden special weight race for 3-year-olds at a mile.

Expectations are sky-high for Cozmic One, who is by Bernardini. The colt has been in training since last year with Shirreffs, first in New York and at Santa Anita since December. Cozmic One was bred and is owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, who raced Zenyatta.

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Espinoza and Shirreffs said independently in recent days that Cozmic One has changed recently.

“He’s shown a lot of progress in the last four or five weeks,” Shirreffs said. “He’s really finished his works in the last three weeks. This race came up, and we decided the time was now. It seems like the right distance.”

Espinoza said Cozmic One has felt stronger in workouts.

“He’s really coming along,” Espinoza said. “He seems more forward. He’s improved tremendously since I started working him. Anything can happen for a first-time starter. I believe he will run big.”

Cozmic One has drawn the rail in a field of seven that includes Moe Candy and D’ Church, who were narrowly beaten in one-mile maiden special weight races at Santa Anita earlier this spring. Both are capable of playing the spoiler in what will be a sentimental afternoon for many Zenyatta fans.

Shirreffs said the rail draw “isn’t the best spot.”

“It’s time to get to the next level and race,” Shirreffs said. “I don’t think he has the kind of speed to show out of the gate. They’ll get away, and he’ll probably maneuver to the outside.”

The distance, he said, should not be an issue.

“The one thing about him is his stamina,” Shirreffs said. “When he came in as a young horse, it was hard to get him tired. He has a lot of energy. We found out it’s different to train him. For a long time, he didn’t channel that.”

There are still issues related to the colt’s mental preparation. Shirreffs said Cozmic One can be a handful, and he’s hopeful the colt can get through the saddling enclosure and paddock Friday without expending too much energy.

“When he gets to the paddock, it will be different,” he said on Sunday. “We schooled him this morning, and he was a handful.”

Win or lose, Cozmic One’s performance will be heavily dissected by Zenyatta’s legions of followers. Few racehorses in recent decades were as popular as Zenyatta, and that affection continues. There is a statue of Zenyatta in the paddock at Santa Anita that often draws visitors.

Zenyatta won 19 consecutive races and lost her 20th and final start, a second to Blame in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs. That will be nearly impossible to follow, said Shirreffs. Cozmic One will have to earn his own following.

“I think there will be a lot of people excited to see him run,” Shirreffs said. “There isn’t going to be another Zenyatta. What will Coz be like? They’re all individuals.”