There were times in the summer and fall of 2010 when California trainer John Shirreffs, who died on Thursday at 80, was racing’s best promoter.
Shirreffs guided the career of Zenyatta, who won an historic running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita in November 2009 with a come-from-behind move that extended her unbeaten record to 14 races.
ARCADIA, Calif. - The 15-year anniversary of Zenyatta’s epic win in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita is on Nov. 7.
“Where did that go?” trainer John Shirreffs said on Sunday morning. “Fast.”
Zenyatta’s come-from-behind win remains a unique aspect of Breeders’ Cup history, the first and only mare to win the BC Classic.
Shirreffs watched the race from the rail, positioned up the stretch from the finish line. He had a great view of Zenyatta’s rally on the outside under Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith.
“She was making a big move,” he remembered.
On a December Sunday in 2010, Jerry Moss stood in the paddock at Hollywood Park, watching his prized mare Zenyatta parade before an adoring public in a well-attended retirement ceremony.
Zenyatta had won 19 of 20 starts and was weeks away from being named Horse of the Year. On Zenyatta’s last weekend in California before she was flown to Kentucky, fans snapped photos and hugged the rails to be near the popular racehorse.
“This is pretty amazing,” Moss said as he watched the scene unfold.
John Shirreffs trained Zenyatta throughout her Hall of Fame career and can’t wait to see her soon, but the demands of the Kentucky Derby will mean the next visit will come later this month, when he returns for the yearling sales. This week, he’s sticking to Churchill Downs like Calvin Borel sticks to the rail.
“It’s hard to leave. You never know when something unforeseen could develop,” said Shirreffs, who trains Honor A. P.
Two foals with close connections to champions arrived over the weekend in Kentucky.
Love the Chase, dam of 2014 and 2016 Horse of the Year California Chrome, delivered a colt from the first crop of Accelerate on Saturday at Atlas Farm in Nicholasville. One day later, 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta delivered a filly by leading sire Candy Ride at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles.
Zenyatta spent three championship campaigns in trainer John Shirreffs’s barn in California. But whatever memories of her former life as a racehorse remain for Zenyatta, now a broodmare at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky, she evidently doesn’t remember the trainer who guided her to titles as champion older female in 2008, 2009, and 2010, and Horse of the Year in 2010.
Shirreffs said he last saw Zenyatta while attending the Keeneland September sale, and that she didn’t seem to remember him.
“She’s forgotten about me,” he said. “Out of sight, out of mind, as they say.”
ARCADIA, Calif. – The decade-old purple saddle towel looks brand new. It was not worn very many times, in 2009 for about a week, probably, and those who saw it in person will never forget the runner whose name appeared in white block letters below the Breeders’ Cup logo: ZENYATTA.
On Nov. 7, 2009, Zenyatta roared from last of 12 with a wide rally to score her 14th consecutive victory the BC Classic. For thousands and thousands of racing fans, there has been no greater moment in modern racing.
ARCADIA, Calif. – The all-time leading Breeders’ Cup jockey possesses more than superior horsemanship. Mike Smith also has an uncanny memory.
This fall at Santa Anita, Smith will try to add to his record Breeders’ Cup totals – 26 wins and $35.9 million in earnings. It is no surprise Smith’s most heavily fancied mount is Midnight Bisou in the Distaff, a race he has won five times.
