ARCADIA, Calif. – Zellda, a 2-year-old filly out of famous 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, arrived at trainer John Shirreffs’s stable at Santa Anita in late September and is in early training.
Zellda, owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, has been jogging in recent days.
“She’s just getting used to it,” Shirreffs said of the filly’s new surroundings. “She’s learning her way around here.
“It’s fun to have her in the barn.”
She’s a beer. She’s a postage stamp. She’s a bona-fide superstar and a national treasure. In this case, that nation is Australia.
Winx envy hit the world’s great racing stages hard last year. Dubai figured they had a race tailor-made for the marquee mare on World Cup Night. England’s Ascot pulled out all the stops trying to recruit her for its royal meet. Even the Breeders’ Cup sent serious feelers southward to encourage a possible autumn detour from her appointed rounds.
DEL MAR, Calif. – After a 106-week layoff, Cozmic One, a 5-year-old horse out of 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta, will have his turf debut in Sunday’s ninth race at Del Mar.
Owned by Jerry and Ann Moss and trained by John Shirreffs, the people behind Zenyatta, Cozmic One drew the rail in a field of 12 maidens that includes Sonneteer, who was 16th in the Kentucky Derby on May 6.
“It will be fun to see him run,” Shirreffs said of Cozmic One.
Hall of Famer Zenyatta is in foal to Grade 1 winner Into Mischief for the 2018 foaling season.
The 13-year-old Street Cry mare was covered June 3 to produce what would be her sixth foal. She delivered a Medaglia d’Oro filly on May 9.
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.
In a year of international synergy in the ever-more-global Thoroughbred bloodstock industry, three stallions dominated their corners of the globe: Japanese Triple Crown winner Deep Impact, the world’s leading sire due to staggering purses in his home country; the ineffable Galileo in Europe; and Tapit, who keeps setting the bar higher for himself in North America.
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Steve Asmussen often exhibits a hardened exterior, never truly revealing what he’s thinking, to the point where sometimes it’s not easy to tell if he won or lost a race.
On Friday, however, Asmussen showed an emotional side rarely seen publicly as he was formally inducted into the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame.
Asmussen got choked up sitting in the front row as Julie, his wife of 19 years, introduced him. Later, when talking about his parents, Keith and Marilyn, Steve Asmussen had to stop.
Zenyatta was born on April 1 – no kidding – and she made her racing debut on Thanksgiving. You’re welcome.
After such delightful coincidences of the calendar, anything was possible. So, why not 19 straight wins and nearly a 20th, three championship seasons and Horse of the Year, international fame and adoration, and a place on the Hall of Fame wall in Saratoga Springs in her first year of eligibility?
