Zenyatta: Lightly raced Midnight Memories one to beat

ARCADIA, Calif. – Perhaps the Grade 2 Zenyatta Stakes will regain significance next year as an essential local prep for the 2023 Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita.

This year, not so much. A mostly undistinguished field of five fillies and mares entered the $200,000 Zenyatta, the richest and highest-graded race Sunday at Santa Anita but one that is not likely to influence the BC Distaff next month at Keeneland.

This is not to disparage Zenyatta entrants Midnight Memories, Awake at Midnyte, or Soothsay. They are young, lightly raced, with room to improve. But five weeks from the Breeders’ Cup, they hardly compare to Distaff favorites Nest and Malathaat.

Other stakes Sunday at Santa Anita do have Breeders’ Cup implications. Race 5 is the $100,000 Speakeasy, a BC Challenge for the Juvenile Turf Sprint in which Speed Boat Beach is favored. Race 6 is the Grade 3 Chillingworth with 2021 BC Filly and Mare Sprint winner Ce Ce. Race 8 is the Grade 3 Tokyo City Stakes at 1 1/2 miles; Avenue goes turf to dirt trying to upset Heywoods Beach.

The field for the 1 1/16-mile Zenyatta includes minor stakes winners Samurai Charm and Empire House, Grade 3 winner Midnight Memories, Grade 2 winner Soothsay, and graded-placed Awake At Midnyte. The horse to beat is the least experienced in the field.

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Midnight Memories, 3 for 4, won her first two starts this spring at Santa Anita for trainer Sean McCarthy, then hit a bump in the road for Bob Baffert at Del Mar. She lost her cool in the paddock and finished third in an allowance, then returned to form by wiring 3-year-old fillies in the Grade 3 Torrey Pines at one mile, her first try at two turns.

“It took her a while to get going,” trainer Bob Baffert said. “The first time I ran her [at Del Mar], she completed melted in the paddock. I had a couple horses that did that, her and Defunded.”

Midnight Memories received extra paddock schooling, and was a different horse when she stretched out in the Torrey Pines. She wired the field, while benefiting from a speed-friendly surface.

“I think the track might have carried her a little bit,” Baffert acknowledged. “Toward the end there, it got pretty speed-biased.” The pacesetting win by Midnight Memories at Del Mar was Sept. 4, during a spell when 9 of 14 dirt miles were won by the pacesetter.

Midnight Memories is the first stakes winner sired by undefeated Grade 1 winner Mastery, who Baffert trained. The dam of Midnight Memories is Grade 2 winner Tiz Midnight, runner-up in the 2014 Zenyatta and also trained by Baffert. Ramon Vazquez rides Midnight Memories.

Awake At Midnyte returned from a four-month layoff with a decisive allowance sprint win and has worked exceptionally well at Santa Anita since. Doug O’Neill trains Awake At Midnyte, whose best performances have been around one turn. Can she route?

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“The jury’s still out on that. She’s run some really dynamite one-turn races,” O’Neill said. “I’m optimistic. She put in a really nice work here the other day. Being able to try it again [two turns] in our backyard is an advantage.”

Mario Gutierrez rides Awake At Midnyte, a 3-year-old who has won 2 of 7.

Soothsay won the won the Grade 2 Santa Anita Oaks and Grade 3 Indiana Oaks in 2021, then was off more than a year to recover from what trainer Richard Mandella described as “a nasty splint. It took quite a while.”

Soothsay was up against it in her return, and finished a distant fourth in the Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch. “She just wasn’t as fit as she should’ve been for the race,” Mandella aid. “I think I had her short, and it took a lot out of her.”

Mike Smith rides Soothsay, a 4-year-old with three wins from five starts.

Samurai Charm, trained by Peter Miller, has won 5 of 10 and enters with the highest recent speed figure. She earned a 91 Beyer finishing second in a restricted stakes at Del Mar last out. Empire House has won 4 of 22 for trainer Jonathan Wong.

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