Zenyatta, the 2010 Horse of the Year and the only mare to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, is in foal after a second mating to Bernardini.
The mare’s pregnancy was confirmed on a website written by Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, purportedly in the mare’s “voice,” after vets performed an ultrasound Tuesday morning. Ingordo-Shirreffs is an adviser to the mare’s owners, Jerry and Ann Moss.
Zenyatta, the 2011 Horse of the Year, is no longer in foal after five weeks of pregnancy and will be bred to Bernardini again next week, according to Mike Cline, the manager of Lane's End Farm, where the seven-year-old mare is boarded.
"She came up empty on a 35-day [pregnancy] check today," Cline said. "It's not uncommon. It's unfortunate, but she's healthy, she's doing great, and we expect her to get back in foal."
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Zenyatta is in foal.
The 7-year-old Street Cry mare’s pregnancy appeared on an ultrasound scan Thursday morning, 15 days after her mating to Bernardini. Such scans are routine for mares at around two weeks past breeding in order to identify whether the mare is carrying an embryo.
Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, wife of Zenyatta’s former trainer John Shirreffs and racing manager for the mare’s owners Ann and Jerry Moss, announced the pregnancy on a diary that purports to be written by Zenyatta.
LEXINGTON, Ky. - Horse of the Year Zenyatta was bred to Bernardini on Wednesday at about 8 a.m., according to a notice posted on Zenyatta.com.
That site is maintained Dottie Ingordo Shirreffs, the racing manager for Zenyatta’s owners Ann and Jerry Moss and the wife of Zenyatta’s trainer John Shirreffs.
Birds do it. Bees do it. Even educated fleas do it. And that’s about as far into the very old song as this writer is willing to go, especially since there is nothing about the mating of two Thoroughbred horses that has anything remotely to do with falling in love.
LEXINGTON, Ky. − As the Thoroughbred world speculates about what a Bernardini-Zenyatta foal might look like, there are a handful of people in the sport who already have an inkling.
This possible hint of things to come is named Eblouissante, and she is Zenyatta’s 2-year-old half-sister by Bernardini – the closest thing available to the mating cross Ann and Jerry Moss are planning for their reigning Horse of the Year.
ARCADIA, Calif. – Bernardini will be bred to 2010 Horse of the Year Zenyatta in late February at the earliest, Zenyatta’s owner, Jerry Moss, said on Friday.
“It depends on her, but we’d like [the mating] to be at the end of February,” Moss said at Santa Anita, where he and his wife Ann had horses running in two races.
Owner: Ann and Jerry Moss
