NEW YORK – If Zenyatta wins the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Saturday, finishing her career 20 for 20 with a victory over the best horses she has ever faced at the iconic American showcase of 10 furlongs on the dirt at Churchill Downs, it will be a spectacular moment in all of racing history. It would of course also rightly make her a virtually unanimous choice as the nation’s Horse of the Year, an honor for which she finished second in the balloting in 2008 and 2009.
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DRF Past Performances
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Zenyatta galloped approximately 1 1/2 miles on the main track at Hollywood Park on Friday, continuing a week-long theme of exercising with enthusiasm under rider Steve Willard.
Unbeaten in 19 starts and the favorite for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6, Zenyatta was scheduled to have her final workout at Hollywood Park on Saturday. She will be flown to Churchill Downs on Tuesday.
As Zenyatta walked off the track following Friday’s gallop, Willard emphasized how impressed he has been with her recent activity.
NEW YORK – Led by Frankel, this year’s crop of European 2-year-olds looks like the strongest and deepest in many a year. Their impact should be felt in the Breeders’ Cup juvenile races, even though none of the best European 2-year-olds will be at Churchill Downs next week.
Zenyatta galloped 1 1/2 miles on Hollywood Park’s main track on Thursday, two days before her final workout in preparation for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6.
Zenyatta began her gallop near the head of the stretch and did a complete circuit before pulling up on the backstretch. Ridden by exercise rider Steve Willard, the unbeaten 6-year-old Zenyatta showed enthusiasm throughout the exercise.
“She’s in the bridle,” trainer John Shirreffs said. “I’d have to say she’s stepped it up a notch. She’s a little more intense.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Trainer Charles Lopresti is excited about the prospect of participating in his first Breeders’ Cup, especially considering he’ll be represented by two horses with excellent chances to win their respective races – Here Comes Ben in the Dirt Mile and Wise Dan in the Sprint.
Just outside Barn 10 on the Fair Grounds backstretch there is a two-step wooden viewing platform set against the chain-link fence that rings the outside of the main track. That’s Al Stall’s perch. Not on a stable pony out on the track, not bantering with the jokers down at the clocker’s stand. From the top step, Stall can see most of the racing oval and out across the infield. The tote board blocks the finish wire, but he has clocked horses from his little step long enough to know when to bing his watch at the end of a work.