Zenyatta loses 2021 foal

Champion Zenyatta lost the foal she was carrying earlier this month, her connections reported Tuesday morning, the latest incident in a streak of bad luck for the Hall of Fame racemare as a broodmare.

Zenyatta, a 17-year-old daughter of Street Cry, has been boarded at Lane's End Farm for the Moss family since her retirement following the 2010 racing season, for which she was honored as Horse of the Year. Her most recent surviving foal is a filly by Lane’s End stallion Candy Ride, born in May 2020 and recently named Zilkha. She was then bred back to that stallion.

“We at Team Zenyatta and Lane’s End Farm are deeply saddened to share that Zenyatta lost her 2021 foal early this year,” read a statement posted on Zenyatta’s official website. “She had been carrying a second Candy Ride filly, and we grieve the loss of this precious life. Thankfully, Zenyatta remains in excellent health and is doing very well.”

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Including her current yearling filly, Zenyatta has produced four foals to date who have survived past their weanling stage. Her two starters to date are Cozmic One, her first foal, delivered in 2012; and Ziconic, born in 2013. Both were winless on the track and have since been gelded and moved on to second careers. Zenyatta’s only current foal in training is the 4-year-old filly Zellda, by Medaglia d'Oro, who is in training in California.

Zenyatta delivered a War Front filly in 2014, who died later that year following a paddock accident. She was not bred for the 2015 foaling season, and in 2016 delivered a War Front colt. He died days after birth due to meconium aspiration.

Zenyatta aborted a foal by Into Mischief in 2018 and was not bred for the 2019 foaling season.