LOUISVILLE, Ky. – Nothing, it seems, can stop Zenyatta. Not even a semi.

When she left Barn 41 at Churchill Downs on Wednesday morning, Zenyatta began down a path toward the racetrack when she suddenly came face to face with the cab of a truck, whose driver apparently didn’t realize that it was training hours and millions of dollars worth of horses, not to mention the riders perched on their backs, were moving about. Zenyatta was moving forward, a large entourage following right behind. There was only one solution to this stare down. The semi moved back.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Zenyatta drew post 8 and was made the 8-5 favorite on the morning line of Churchill Downs’s Mike Battaglia when a field of 12 was entered on Tuesday for the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic, the highlight of the 14 BC races, worth $25.5 million, to be run Friday and Saturday at Churchill Downs.

Zenyatta is the lone mare in the field, just like a year ago, when she won the Classic at Santa Anita. She is seeking to become the second repeat winner in the Classic, joining Tiznow, who prevailed in 2000 and 2001.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- The way you could tell Zenyatta was getting close to the Churchill Downs backstretch was by the helicopter following her convoy from the airport. Not just a chopper, but a police escort leading the gleaming Creech Horse Transportation semi-trailer as it took the short drive from nearby Standiford Field, where Zenyatta’s plane had landed at 11:35, to Churchill. The Creech truck was from Troy, Mo., but that was no Trojan horse who descended the steps of the trailer just past noon on Tuesday.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Zenyatta had a quiet morning at Hollywood Park on Monday, a contrast to the commotion that awaits her presence at Churchill Downs later this week in the build-up to Saturday’s $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic.

The unbeaten 6-year-old mare jogged a leisurely mile on the backstretch training track at Hollywood Park on Monday morning and virtually had the track to herself. She was ridden by regular exercise rider Steve Willard and accompanied by a pony throughout the two-circuit exercise.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – By dawn Sunday, Zenyatta had already been out of her stall at trainer John Shirreffs’s stable at Hollywood Park for a 45-minute walk. It was to be the theme of her Sunday, a day after she worked six furlongs in 1:11.80 for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Zenyatta was scheduled to have three walking sessions Sunday. She was back out for another walk in the 9 o’clock hour on Sunday morning and was to be walked and grazed in the afternoon. The only unknown was how long Shirreffs and his team could delay the start of the afternoon session.

INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Mike Smith had Zenyatta’s saddle and reins in his hands, walking down the shedrow of trainer John Shirreffs’s stable at Hollywood Park when he stopped and watched the 6-year-old walk by on Saturday morning. He had just climbed off of the unbeaten winner of 19 races after a six-furlong workout in 1:11.80.

“Look at her – 1:11 and four,” Smith said. “I thought it was brilliant, better than last year before the Classic.”

Zenyatta will be profiled on the CBS program "60 Minutes" on Sunday ahead of her attempt to win back-to-back Breeders' Cup Classics and end her career a perfect 20-0. In a preview of the segment, jockey Mike Smith says that if she can accomplish that feat, "she could arguably go down as one of the great, if not the greatest, horses of all time."

"Better than Secretariat?" asks interviewer Bob Simon.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – This normally happens in the spring at Churchill Downs, not in the fall. A race meet opens to tremendous anticipation of what lies straight ahead, but it is usually the Kentucky Derby that awaits, not the Breeders’ Cup.