Zenyatta delivers Medaglia d'Oro filly

Zenyatta, a Hall of Famer and the 2010 Horse of the Year, produced her fifth foal on Tuesday night, a Medaglia d’Oro filly.

The mare has been boarded at Lane’s End in Versailles, Ky., since her retirement from the racetrack at the end of her 2010 campaign. Zenyatta and her foal are owned by Jerry and Ann Moss.

“Both mare and filly are in excellent health,” read a statement on the horse’s official website, Zenyatta.com.

Thus far, Zenyatta’s broodmare career has not gone according to plan. After producing her first two foals without issue, Zenyatta’s third foal, a War Front filly born in 2014, was euthanized as a weanling following a paddock accident. Zenyatta was given a year off from the breeding shed and was sent back to War Front for the 2015 foaling season, but her ensuing foal died three days after he was born due to complications from meconium aspiration.

Zenyatta is still seeking her first win as a broodmare. Her first foal, Cozmic One, by Bernardini, is unplaced in two starts but is working toward his 5-year-old debut at Santa Anita. Ziconic, by Tapit, has placed in four of six starts, most recently finishing third by a half-length in a turf maiden special weight race on April 16 at Santa Anita.

John Shirreffs trains both of Zenyatta’s foals for the Mosses, as he did Zenyatta herself.

Medaglia d’Oro stands at Darley’s U.S. base at Jonabell Farm in Lexington, Ky., where he is advertised for a fee of $150,000. Zenyatta is a daughter of the late Street Cry, who was also on the Darley roster.

The 18-year-old son of El Prado has sired 10 crops of racing age, with 604 winners and progeny earnings in excess of $89.5 million. Medaglia d’Oro’s most notable runner is Rachel Alexandra, who beat out Zenyatta in the voting for 2009 Horse of the Year by a margin of 130-99 and was inducted in the same Hall of Fame class as Zenyatta.

Other prominent runners by Medaglia d’Oro include two-time champion Songbird, Australian champion Vancouver, Kentucky Oaks winner Plum Pretty, and Grade/Group 1 winners Passion for Gold, Mshawish, Marketing Mix, Coffee Clique, Astern, C. S. Silk, and Lochte.

Medaglia d’Oro won eight of 17 starts for earnings of $5,754,720, highlighted by Grade 1 wins in the Travers Stakes, Whitney Handicap, and Donn Handicap. He was twice a runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Details have not been announced for Zenyatta’s plans regarding the 2017 breeding season.

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