In the 1930s, in the depths of the Great Depression we had Seabiscuit. During the Arab Oil Crisis and deep recession of the 1970s we had Secretariat. Today, during our jobless recovery and upside down houses, we have Zenyatta.
The first time I heard her name Chantal Sutherland was screaming her name on the television show "Jockeys." So I came to her game late. I watched her run starting in the fall of 2009 as she prepped for the Breeder's Cup.
Zenyatta was a mind blower and a thrill ride. Looking at this big pushy mare in the walk ring I was awed. I was taught as a kid how to judge conformation and this mare had it all: balance and symmetry with flowing grace battling with raw strength. She was perfect. Standing still she was a winner. She would take a champion rosette in any halter class. Her general look was more Warm Blood hunter than Thoroughbred racer.
Not that she stood still much. This mare pushed her groom around. She flexed her neck down and tucked her nose, but she was only giving a nod to his authority. Zenyatta would stab her right foreleg out and paw impatiently. She walked with a stiff impatient gate. No spinning or kicking like Lethal Heat. She never pulled her head up it's full height. Good news for her groom. This mare is 17 hands tall (that's 68 inches at the withers or 5'8"). She's big. Humans are an afterthought for her, but she didn't seem to show any animosity or skittishness. She just wanted to get to work.
Getting to work for Zenyatta was running. Only this mare did it in a way I've never seen before or since. She acted as if she were out for a morning work. She broke slow and lazy. She lagged behind. She was so relaxed her ears flopped around. At a point in the far turn she woke up and got serious. Swinging wide she turned on the freight train charge. Watching this mare's front end reach out, gather the track and shove it behind her was like watching a machine. She chewed the track up. It didn't stand a chance with those big shoulders. The big engine in the back wasn't a V8, it was a V12. The push off from her hind quarters was wide and perfect.
By the time she had finished teasing her competition and blowing their hopes of a win, she had me hooked.
I was fortunate enough to make it to her 2009 Breeder's Cup race. I was a bit sceptical about her chances against the males. She was facing all the best in the country. Well, Mine That Bird was a glorified claimer even if he did win the Derby. How would she do? The public believed in her. Zenyatta signs were everywhere. I hadn't seen this much excitement for a horse since Secretariat. This mare had everyone's heart.
Like she always did. She brought her normal game. Run last (whoops, forgot Mine That Bird was last), pick it up in the far turn, this time she wove through traffic and then do the big late charge. She blew past us and took the oxygen with her. Everyone was hugging everyone. No other mare had ever done it: win the Classic. She had won the Ladies' Classic the year before. She had both titles. Sports Illustrated put her as the second most influential female in sports. Right behind one of tennis' Williams sisters.
Having both titles didn't mean anything for Horse of the Year. Being unbeaten didn't mean anything either. A filly with a minor record who won the Preakness (something other females have done in the past) won it. Rachel Alexandra was an east coast, dirt horse. Zenyatta is a west coast, synthetic horse. The voting for Horse of the Year tends to favor east coast horses and the voting is extremely subjective and political. The criteria changes from year to year so you have no idea who will win. You have a hint by region and surface.
Zenyatta was supposed to be retired with a perfect 14 and 0 record. I went to her retirement ceremony at Hollywood Park. I heard Governor Schwartenegger boo'd roundly. Zenyatta appeared with her exercise rider up and the crowd erupted. Zenyatta signs bobbed everywhere. They put her jockey up for photos and she thought she was going racing. She suddenly switched into race mode and became pushy and excited.
The owners decided to bring her back and race her for another year. She was aiming for the Classic again. The public called for a race between Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra. The Mosses said their mare would go to Arkansas and race Rachel there. The race's date was even pushed back and money added to attract Rachel. She never showed up and Zenyatta had to run against a small field of nobodies. She looked bored.
I watched Zenyatta eat St. Trinians alive. Poor St. Trinians dug in and wanted to win. She ran her heart out. St. Trinians wasn't the same horse after that. Something went out of her after Zenyatta beat her. Rinterval came up and tried. She lost. The next race I was laid up and had to watch from home but thought it was interesting that Rinterval couldn't take the crush of people and the smell of that mare that had beaten her so badly last time. Rinterval flipped over, hurt herself and was scratched. She wanted nothing to do with the circus called Zenyatta. Switch tried to get a jump on the queen and she just couldn't do it. Zenyatta was at win 19. She tied Pepper's Pride for the record.
Now the real circus started. The television show "60 Minutes" did a piece on her. Oprah Winfrey put her in the list of influential women. "W"magazine did an article on her. There were Zenyatta bobbleheads. I had one. I sent it to someone living on the east coast because I thought she might never get a chance to see the mare run. All eyes were on Zenyatta and all hearts wanted her to win.
Zenyatta was a perfect horse for the media. She had her "dance moves." She had her "stop and pose." At Santa Anita in the spring the sun didn't come out until the Queen did. She came out of the saddling barn, stopped, posed and the clouds parted. I was there. I swear to it.
Zenyatta drank Guinness after her workouts. Guinness offered her a trip to Ireland. Fitting. Her sire, Street Cry, was Irish. She's a half Irish girl.
Zenyatta was known for her gentleness when she wasn't fired for racing. There was a saying that if you wanted to find Zenyatta just look for the stall where the horse was licking her groom to death. Small children could feed her peppermints.
I had always had a weird feeling about this race. I constantly said I didn't want to see it. I was afraid to watch. Fate was being tempted. The gods like to punish hubris and this mare was cocky. So were her human connections. They could not conceive she wouldn't be perfect. But I was seeing things that disturbed me.
In her training she would train to her strength: up from behind. She liked having a target to chase. But they were not making her catch the workmate before the wire. I was seeing her catch the workmate after the wire. This would play out later. I was also in doubt of her running style in a large field on a track that horses either love or hate. She had won on dirt before, but this is Churchill. Many horses will fail on the surface and go on to win elsewhere. When the track is dry or sealed some horses don't do their best. I was wondering if her late run style with its lazy run-just-enough-to-win finish would be her undoing.
I didn't pay much attention to the 2010 Breeder's Cup races on Friday. That day is historically a money pit for me. I avoid it. I put some money on Blind Luck and she had none that day. She came in second and I cashed show money.
Saturday I bet all the races starting with the 4th. Goldikova defended her title on the Mile for the second time with a classy win. She's a plain, brown, little mare with tactical speed. Uncle Mo showed us again why we should put him on the list to watch for the Triple Crown. This colt who won his maiden by 14 and 1/4 and then won his next out by 4th did it again. This time he was 4 1/4 ahead of Boys At Toscanova and it was 6 lengths back to the pack.
The big race came up and I started feeling ill.
Zenyatta broke slow as usual but something was wrong. The field took off without her. She was so far out of it I wondered if she had broken down. She picked it up but not much. The backstretch had two groups of horses and Zenyatta was behind them all. She was asked to pick it up and she did but the backstretch was nearly over. In the far turn she was still behind a bunch of traffic. My heart sunk. She wasn't going to do it. At the top of the stretch she tried to get by traffic, got stopped by Quality Road, pulled to the outside, by this time Blame was halfway home.
This time Zenyatta had to really run. For the first time in her life she had to run flat out. This wasn't her usual Saturday canter around the track. She charged at Blame. She drove at him. He dug in. She stretched for it. He was flying.
At the wire his nose was still out front.
Her running style, and her dislike of having Churchill's unique track surface flung in her face, did her in.
The Breeder's Cup had its largest handle ever and its largest attendance ever. The year before had been a record and this year broke that. Everyone was there to the the Queen. She had drawn them in and then, like the Mighty Casey At Bat, she struck out.
Blame will get Horse of The Year. He won some stakes races. I can't name single one. He's been defeated. He's only 4 so he hasn't really done anything to put him on the map. He will be like Upset who ruined Man O' War's record: The horse that beat the Big Horse. His owners retired him right after the race and put his stud fee at $35,000. The horse will never prove whether he's great or not. Can't do that in the pasture. Or even in the breeding shed. When was the last time we turned on the evening news and heard what a breeding stallion did? Maybe when Secretariat died he got a mention. Blame is no Secretariat. But Blame is an east coast horse who ran on the dirt. Last year winning the Classic and doing something spectacular (like being the first female to do it) didn't matter. Just as an undefeated record didn't matter. This year an average record for the level of racing and a win in the Classic against a horse considered one of the greatest are the criteria. This has made Horse of the Year, to outside eyes, a muddled and suspect mess. What do you mean a mare that went 19-1 can lose the honor to a horse who has been beaten more than once and has never made history or never attracted a crowd on the strength of his name alone? No one will take Horse of the Year seriously ever again.
The one thing that will never be taken from Zenyatta is the word "great." She is one of the greats. Horse of the Year 2009 Rachel Alexandra never ran well after she collected the trophy. She had one good year in her, then she flattened out and ran like a claimer. Blame retired on his win against the Big Mare. We will never know if he was just a good horse or a great one. Zenyatta will always have "great" attached to her name and said in the same breath. She's still the Queen. No one will forget her. The others will be footnotes in history. Zenyatta is history.
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