{"id":5827,"date":"2010-10-06T19:16:57","date_gmt":"2010-10-07T00:16:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=5827"},"modified":"2010-10-06T19:20:39","modified_gmt":"2010-10-07T00:20:39","slug":"zenyatta-poised-for-a-grand-finale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/?p=5827","title":{"rendered":"Zenyatta poised for a grand finale"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Zenyatta, following her nineteenth consecutive win last weekend in the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Hollywood Park,\u00c2\u00a0is poised to cap her amazing career on November 6, in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.<\/p>\n

In 2009<\/a>, at Santa Anita Park, the then 5-year-old mare became the first female in history to win the Classic.<\/p>\n

“She is just amazing,” said Hall of Fame rider Mike Smith, following the Lady’s Secret, where Zenyatta\u00c2\u00a0overtook Switch in the final 20 yards to win by a half-length. She covered the last sixteenth of the 1\u00c2\u00a01\/16-mile race in less than six seconds for a finish time of 1:42.97.<\/p>\n

“She just seems to know where the wire is and she likes to make it a little dramatic,” added Smith, who\u00c2\u00a0has ridden Zenyatta in all but her first three races, for trainer John Shirreffs and owners Jerry and\u00c2\u00a0Ann Moss.<\/p>\n

With last weekend’s win, Zenyatta matched the 19-win record of Peppers\u00c2\u00a0Pride<\/a>, who earned her victories in races limited to New Mexico-breds. The $150,000 winner’s payout also\u00c2\u00a0made Zenyatta the all-time the leading female money earner, with $6.4 million, surpassing Ouija Board,\u00c2\u00a0who retired in 2006 with $6.3 million.<\/p>\n

The 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic will mark Zenyatta’s first start at Churchill Downs; her second start against males; and her third start over a dirt\u00c2\u00a0track. Both of her previous dirt races were at Oaklawn Park, where she won the 2008 and 2010 Apple\u00c2\u00a0Blossom Stakes at 1 1\/16 miles.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be better going a mile and a quarter,” said Smith, referring to the Breeders Cup Classic\u00c2\u00a0distance. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Going a mile and a sixteenth is a sprint for her.”<\/p>\n

Zenyatta will remain with Shirreffs at Hollywood Park, until she is shipped to Churchill Downs at the first of November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zenyatta, following her nineteenth consecutive win last weekend in the Lady’s Secret Stakes at Hollywood…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events","category-racing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5827"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5840,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5827\/revisions\/5840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sallyharrison.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}