Our unmissable series continues with the gentle giant who entranced the entire racing world to become an equine icon
Zenyatta was a moveable feast. A symphony in 20 inspiring parts. To refer to Zenyatta as a “favorite racehorse” is like listing the Grand Canyon among a traveler’s most enjoyable views.
There’s little to compare. And in terms of providing memories that linger, Zenyatta starts at the top and works upwards from there.
As the 15th anniversary of her final, bittersweet appearance approaches on November 6, 2025, a journey through Zenyatta’s 20 races seems fitting. This reporter was not there in person for all of them – just a sweet 16 – so I can vouch for the reactions of only those who witnessed the other four first-hand. Lucky them.
1. November 22, 2007
Thanksgiving, no less. At Hollywood Park, in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden race for three-year-old fillies worth $44,000, a field of 12 entered the gate, 11 of them unsuspecting of what was about to happen. Zenyatta, bearing a work history as long as your arm, stood at odds of $5.50 on the dollar. As she paraded forth at about half past one on that holiday afternoon, her giant profile looked like anything but a sprinter.
Stamping her style from the outset, Zenyatta languished at the back of the field until approaching the far turn. Track announcer Vic Stauffer picked up on her progress, passing one opponent after another under a cool David Flores until she arrived at the finish three lengths clear of Carmel Coffee, a daughter of Holy Bull who went on to a modestly successful career. Stauffer knew what he saw, concluding his call with: “You’d better take a look at Zenyatta.”
2. December 15, 2007
By the time Zenyatta made her second appearance in a mile and one-sixteenth allowance race, also at Hollywood Park, intelligence was beginning to leak out in dribs and drabs.
Her breeding was peerless. Street Cry was Godolphin’s two-time winner of the Dubai World Cup whose colt Street Sense won the 2007 Kentucky Derby and Travers Stakes. Her dam, Vertigineux, was a daughter of the Roberto stallion Kris S whose first foal won a stakes in Oklahoma. Her second foal, named Balance, was a devilish filly tamed by trainer David Hofmans to win three G1 races and more than a million dollars. Zenyatta was her third foal, born on April 1, 2004, at Winter Quarter Farm in Kentucky.
Bred by Eric Kronfeld, the yearling version of Zenyatta brought only $60,000 at the 2005 Keeneland September sale. Word had it that she was suffering from a skin rash and was not a pretty sight. David Ingordo, the astute bloodstock agent, told patron Jerry Moss to look past the rash to the substantial individual beneath and imagine what she would look like at maturity. Moss, who knew the music business, took Ingordo at his word.
Zenyatta’s second race looked quite a bit like her first. She lazed along in last, with the leaders in sensible sight, until Flores felt the big filly grab the bit. Still, she appeared to be in no more than a high gallop as she swept past the leaders to win by 3 1/2 lengths. This time, Stauffer hedged no bets: “Here’s a future superstar – Zenyatta!”
3. January 13, 2008
After her purchase, Zenyatta was dispatched to Jeanne Mayberry’s training farm in Florida, where she began training as a two-year-old before going to the stable of John Shirreffs (right) at Hollywood Park.
Shirreffs was married to David Ingordo’s mother, Dottie Ingordo, who managed the horses owned by Ann and Jerry Moss. Shirreffs had already taken them to the top of the racing world with Giacomo, winner of the 2004 Kentucky Derby, and Jerry Moss figured nothing could top that experience.
Zenyatta’s early progress was compromised by minor physical issues and attitude adjustments. At no point, however, did Shirreffs think he had anything less than a monster on his hands.
“There was the time she outworked Tiago,” Shirreffs recalled, summoning the name of the 2007 Santa Anita Derby winner. “He had gone two or three five-eighths, and she was going her first five-eighths. She just went …” and here Shirreffs made one of those trainer noises they make to describe a horse going very fast and leaving another horse behind. Sort of a combination of whoosh, zoom and wow.
Zenyatta made her stakes debut in the El Encino Stakes at Santa Anita, a G2 event for four-year-old fillies. The opposition included a trio already proven in G1 company – Tough Tiz’s Sis, Romance Is Diane, and Dawn After Dawn – and they had an exciting race going among them when, with an astounding burst, Flores produced Zenyatta under a hand ride to pass them as if they were tied to the rail. Trevor Denman was witnessing her for the first time and was duly impressed:
“And Zenyatta, just an amazing coverage of ground,” he proclaimed. “She just covers so much ground with those bounding strides.”
4. April 5, 2008
Thoroughbred trainers always try to minimize the variables, and John Shirreffs is no different. That is why he can be forgiven his case of nerves prior to the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park, in which Zenyatta would be competing in her fist G1 event – on a dirt surface for the first time, 2,000 miles from her cosy Hollywood Park stall, and ridden by a new jockey.
Flores was in demand at the time, and the Kentucky Derby was on the horizon. Flores committed to ride San Rafael Stakes winner El Gato Malo in the Santa Anita Derby on the same day, leaving Zenyatta’s saddle open for all of about 30 seconds before Shirreffs and Moss called on Giacomo’s Kentucky Derby-winning rider, Mike Smith.
It worked out just fine, except that Zenyatta nearly ran out from under Smith through the final stages of the mile and one-sixteenth Apple Blossom.
“It wasn’t even turning for home, and I though I’d left her way too much to do,” Smith said. “I went from picking her up to going ‘hyaaah!’ and slapping her on the shoulder. Whoa! The next thing I’m thinking is that I hit the front way too soon. Clearly, the communication wasn’t 100 percent yet.”
But the result was impressive. Zenyatta was still drawing away from runner-up Brownie Points when she hit the wire, 4 1/2 lengths in front.
5. May 31, 2008
The Milady Handicap came up at just the right time for Zenyatta’s return to action at Hollywood Park and its hybrid surface of synthetic material and sand. She was maturing, brushing close to 1,200 pounds, in the same range occupied by the towering Unbridled mare Manistique, trained by Shirreffs to win nine graded stakes. He was asked if he’d ever seen a stride like Zenyatta’s.
“Never,” Shirreffs replied. “And I can't believe she has this kind of stride on these kinds of tracks, because these synthetic tracks are very difficult for horses with big strides.”
The Milady drew only five starters, with Zenyatta in the middle of the gate. When the doors opened, she was pinched from both sides, but she was going to be at the back of the field anyway. The pace was slow, and as the field came together on the final turn, Smith had Zenyatta in high gear on the far outside. Stauffer had his tag line poised for delivery as they went under the line 2 1/2 lengths in front of a game Santa Teresita:
“How do you describe perfection? Why try? Let’s just watch her run. This is Zenyatta!”
6. July 5, 2008
The official handicapper had a hard time catching up to Zenyatta after she carried only 116 pounds in the Apple Blossom. By the time the prestigious Vanity Handicap came around, her assignment was up to a more fitting 124 pounds.
The swift Silver Z tore off in a race of her own, winging along at one point more than a dozen lengths ahead of the pack. Opposing riders were torn between the chase and eyeballing each other as they headed into the far turn.
“I was a length or so in front of Zenyatta and I wanted to stay there,” said Aaron Gryder, who was aboard Tough Tiz’s Sis. “You don't want to have to catch Zenyatta. But when Mike moved, I just couldn’t go with her.”
To her credit, Tough Tiz’s Sis hung in there, even when it appeared Zenyatta was on her way to another daylight win. But then the big filly stalled. Gryder shifted outward from between horses to find a path and, to the shock of many, began to catch Zenyatta. Her thrust fell a valiant half-length short.
“She just pulled herself up when she made the lead,” Smith said. “They didn't get to the bottom of her, but they sure got to the bottom of me.”
7. August 8, 2008
Zenyatta had sweated up on a hot day in Inglewood for the Vanity, which made the ocean breezes of Del Mar welcome. A start in the Clement L. Hirsch Handicap seemed a sensible step in search of her seventh straight win.
“Probably one of her best attributes is her recovery,” Shirreffs said. “She was over that race at Hollywood in about 20 minutes, and that was after she’d washed out a little bit, jumped up and down in the post-parade, and then had to make a sustained run of about five-eighths of a mile.”
By then, the Zenyatta story had gone viral. Shirreffs did his part by posting YouTube videos of her workouts and barn life.
“I was asked about the idea of a horse going through a career undefeated,” Shirreffs said in the days leading up to the race. “Come on. It would be very presumptuous to consider such a thing. Fortunately, we don't read the paper every day.”
Carrying 124 pounds, Zenyatta was giving her eight opponents from five to 12 pounds. Silver Z tried her runaway tactics and the field was strung out down the Del Mar backstretch, with Zenyatta more than a dozen lengths arears. This time, just for variety, Smith sent his filly between horses around the final turn and then again at the top of the stretch.
Meanwhile, the Neil Drysdale filly Model had spurted clear at the furlong marker. But it was a tease. Zenyatta’s closing gallop put the race away by a safe length.
8. September 27, 2008
By the time the Lady’s Secret Stakes came around at Santa Anita Park, Jerry Moss (right) was still waxing poetic about her summer races.
“Obviously, the Vanity was an off-day for her, and she won anyway,” Moss said. “But the really good horses are like that. They handle everything, and they do their job no matter what's presented to them.”
Zenyatta was being presented with perhaps her toughest opponent to date in the Lady’s Secret. Hystericalady was a widely-traveled ace for Jerry Hollendorfer who was coming off consecutive major stakes wins at Churchill Downs, Monmouth Park, and Delaware Park. There were only four in the field, all at level weights of 123 pounds.
By then, Mike Smith and Zenyatta were in perfect harmony. “The first part of the race I’ll put my hands way down and keep them way back, palms down, and let her get into that big rhythm,” he said.
“If she wants to pick it up a little sooner than I think we should, I can just lean back without moving my hands. When I want her to pick it up, I sit way up on her so I can look over her head. I’ll kind of lean forward, bow over her a little, and she’ll just run underneath me.”
Hystericalady put up a good fight, but Zenyatta still won by 3 1/2 lengths.
9. October 24, 2008
Jerry Moss compared each appearance of Zenyatta to the debut of a new album by The Police, and he should know, since he had owned them both – or at least, in the case of The Police, owned the company that produced their records.
“We actually released only five albums, and after the first one, each time was huge," Moss said. The third of the five was Zenyatta Mondatta.
The field that confronted Zenyatta for the $2 million Ladies Classic (now back to its original title of Distaff) at the 2008 Breeders’ Cup was led by a scary Godophin entry. Music Note was a three-year-old who swept the Mother Goose, CCA Oaks, and Gazelle, while Cocoa Beach was a Chilean filly who had just won the Beldame.
Music Note tried to stay with Zenyatta at a dead run around the final turn, while Cocoa Beach skimmed the rail to pose a brief but deceptive danger. In truth, Zenyatta’s victory by a length and a half was one of her most relaxing triumphs. This one, however, clinched her first Eclipse Award as champion older filly or mare.
10. May 23, 2009
Zenyatta did not run again for seven months, but it was not for lack of trying. In fact, she was sent to Churchill Downs in late April with the intention of starting her five-year-old season in the Louisville Distaff Stakes, to be run on the Kentucky Oaks undercard.
Then a nasty Kentucky storm rendered the track came up sloppy, and Shirreffs withdrew his champion. Still, it was fun to watch the reaction of Zenyatta first-timers when they beheld her on the backstretch under Steve Willard, her constant saddle companion.
“My God, how big is she? Sixteen hands?” exclaimed a fan, at which Willard was heard to reply, with full pause for effect: “Seventeen … one.”
So it was back home for a defense of her Milady Handicap title, this time under 126 pounds, in which her most serious competition came from a stall right across the shed row in her Hollywood Park barn.
Life Is Sweet, a daughter of Storm Cat, had sliced through the Santa Anita meet winning three important stakes for Shirreffs. As a result, she received only four pounds from Zenyatta.
As they waited to take Zenyatta to the backstretch receiving barn, Shirreffs paced like a caged tiger, while Willard pawed the ground in anticipation. “I just love her,” he said. “She's been training better than she ever has in her life. But I just want her to come back okay.”
She did, and then some. Despite the best efforts of Garrett Gomez to sucker Smith into a trap on the far turn, Zenyatta nimbly danced away from Life Is Sweet to circle the field and win with relative ease.
11. June 27, 2009
Her Milady antics did not go unnoticed by racing secretary Martin Panza, who assigned Zenyatta 129 pounds for the Vanity Handicap. In 68 previous versions of the nine-furlong contest, only three had carried as much to victory.
By then, Zenyatta’s fans were getting restless. They longed to see her on the road again. Speed-figure gurus, whose numbers on synthetic surfaces were suspect, believed Zenyatta was not really that fast. The Vanity, they figured, would be only another in a series of carbon-copy contests, in which Zenyatta would fall back and fire big to win as she pleased over company already proven inferior.
That’s pretty much what happened, although the 129 pounds might have delayed Zenyatta’s late-inning acceleration. Still, she won by 2 1/2 lengths, ate up that night, and enjoyed her pint of Guinness the next afternoon.
There was, though, a challenge rising on the horizon. In the East, the three-year-old filly Rachel Alexandra was running rampant with victories in the Kentucky Oaks and the Preakness Stakes.
On the day Zenyatta won the Vanity, Rachel Alexandra dismantled the Mother Goose Stakes in New York by nearly 20 lengths. The specter of a Breeders’ Cup showdown between the two most popular horses in North America whetted the appetite to a fevered pitch.
12. August 9, 2009
Eclipse Award winner Tyler Baze did everything in his considerable power to end Zenyatta’s winning streak at 11 aboard the surprising Anabaa’s Creation in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar.
After Smith cajoled his big mare into one final thrust to edge Anabaa’s Creation by a short head, Baze walked back to the room in a befuddled daze at what had just transpired.
“I had it won,” he said, tears welling. “I know I did; I don’t believe that happened.”
Julio Canani, who trained Anabaa’s Creation, mumbled and stared. “That’s a freak,” he said. “No way she gets up to win. No way.”
Zenyatta had that affect on people, especially the people who had mares who ran hard and failed to dent her perfection.
Anabaa’s Creation raced once more and was retired. She had accounted for just one minor French stakes in a career of 16 starts. Still, there was that one moment in the sun, when she went toe-to-toe in a gunfight with a legend and lived to tell the tale. In 2014, she sold for nearly $800,000 at Tattersalls, in foal to Oasis Dream.
13. October 10, 2009
Moss was not discouraged by the Hirsch. “Her game, if you can get into that beautiful mind of hers, is to win the race,” Moss said. “It didn’t matter to her how much she won it by. She wanted to just win.”
Come autumn at Santa Anita, just win is what she did again in her defense of the Lady’s Secret Stakes. Cocoa Beach had come out west to see if she could soften up Zenyatta for the Breeders’ Cup, and Life Is Sweet was back for more. But it mattered not. Zenyatta trundled along at her leisure, then slipped inside one horse and around the rest to win by a measured length and a quarter.
With that, Zenyatta had equaled the 13-0 career posted by Personal Ensign 21 years before, after an apocalyptic victory over Derby winner Winning Colors in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs.
“I kind of know how the Zenyatta people feel,” said Shug McGaughey, who trained Personal Ensign. “They’ve done a heckuva job, and I’m rooting for them.”
14. November 7, 2009
Shirreffs and the Mosses let the racing world dangle until just before pre-entries for the 2009 Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita. Then, following a white puff of smoke from the roofline of barn 55 at Hollywood Park, it was announced that Zenyatta would challenge males in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
As Moss told reporters, “She deserves it. No, she’s earned it.”
She also owed it to her fans, who treated her arrival at the paddock for the Classic as if she’d just parted the Red Sea. With her stiff-legged walk at full strut, she entered an arena to face the winners of more than a dozen major stakes at home and abroad.
“Do you really think she can win?” asked a skeptical East Coast turf writer.
“Well, here’s the problem,” I replied. “I don’t have much imagination, and I really can’t picture what it would look like for her to lose.”
That did not seem to satisfy my colleague, but Zenyatta took it from there. Trailing as usual, she began picking up the back markers down the backstretch and into the far turn. A few of her 11 opponents were spinning their wheels on the newly renovated synthetic surface, but horses with classy grass form were handling it well, led by aggressive moves late by Gio Ponti and Twice Over.
This time around, Smith could not indulge himself with a wide move. Around the final turn, he angled inside horses when they made the inevitable spread. This got them into a position behind a rapidly moving phalanx with no holes in sight.
But then a rightward shift by Awesome Gem provided the seam they needed. Zenyatta steered right and then immediately straightened to fine clean air and take on Twice Over.
Trevor Denman pounced on her move like a cat, and before she had collared a dead-game Gio Ponti to win by a length, the announcer already was unfurling a call for the ages: “This-is-un-buh-lievable! Zenyatta, what a performance. One we’ll never forget.”
15. March 13, 2010
A more important date at this point would really be January 18, 2010. On that night, it was revealed at the Eclipse Awards Dinner in Beverly Hills that Rachel Alexandra received 130 votes for 2009 Horse of the Year, compared to 99 for Zenyatta.
Moss was not happy, but he responded with class and held his tongue. Zenyatta was lazing around the Shirreffs barn, downing her daily pint of Guinness and enjoying the break. When Moss announced that his mare would campaign at age six, the trainer was already mapping a plan that would lead to a showdown with Rachel Alexandra and a defense of her Classic crown.
The field assembled for Zenyatta’s return in the Santa Margarita Invitational was nothing special, but her performance was something else. It was as if Smith and his mare were determined to put on a show.
Rounding into the stretch, they knifed between two opponents and then, when an opening closed, tipped left over an opponent’s heels and dove headlong to the inside. Once clear, Zenyatta came out again to run down the leader, Dance To My Tune, and win by her prescribed length and a quarter.
Smith made it sound as if it was all her idea. “I’ve got the best seat in the house,” the jockey said later. “While she’s doing things like that, I’m thinking, ‘Wow. Wow! Did you see that?’”
16. April 9, 2010
Charles Cella, the old-fashioned impresario of Oaklawn Park, was willing to put of $5 million if Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta would meet in his Apple Blossom that spring. As far as Moss and Shirreffs were concerned, they were packed and ready.
Then Rachel Alexandra lost her first start of the season at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans at odds of 1-20 – to, believe it or not, a filly trained by John Shirreffs.
Rachel’s people passed on the Apple Blossom, leaving Zenyatta alone on stage to perform for the 44,973 fans in the house. She did not disappoint, winning by 4 1/2 lengths with barely a twitch from Mike Smith’s hands. What was anticlimactic on paper had turned into a lovefest, and Zenyatta’s record had reach sweet 16 without a defeat.
17. June 13, 2010
Moss was floored by the rock star reception Zenyatta received at Oaklawn Park, as well as enlightened by its physical effects on his mare once she was back home in California.
“I didn't realize how much trips take out of the horse," Moss said. “And it’s not just preparing for the race. It’s the crowd, and the people that gather around her all the time.”
Whether or not Zenyatta had a full tank for a run at a third straight Vanity title remained to be seen. The racing secretary took full advantage of what would be her last time under handicap conditions, and that magic 129 pounds was dusted off and wa
iting.
So was an ambitious ex-British-trained mare named St Trinians, who had blitzed the Santa Maria Handicap and finished sixth as the favorite in the Santa Anita Handicap.
St Trinians had a nine-pound pull and Martin Garcia in the saddle, fresh from his heroics aboard Lookin At Lucky in the Preakness. Zenyatta broke like a rabbit but then switched off for Smith, while Garcia planted his mare just in front of Zenyatta while the pacemakers did their thing.
When both principals began their runs on the far turn, St Trinians was going every bit as well as Zenyatta. They were a study in contrasts – St. Trinians paddling ferociously with a stride that made strong men wince, Zenyatta at work under Smith’s urging, moving like a battleship sliding downhill.
She got there to win by a nailbiting half-length, and number 17 was in the books. On the same afternoon at Churchill Downs, Rachel Alexandra rebounded to win the Fleur de Lis Stakes by more than 10 lengths, immediately reigniting talk of a confrontation between the filly and the mare. Shirreffs, though, was not interested in anything that would distract from the Breeders’ Cup, nearly five months down the road at Churchill Downs.
“I'm not going to go chasing Horse of the Year,” Shirreffs said. “Just being Zenyatta should be enough.”
18. August 7, 2010
The seeds for Zenyatta’s close call in the Clement L. Hirsch at Del Mar that summer were sown earlier in the meet. As happened every year during the synthetic era, the surface had changed from the previous season. Zenyatta had trained well enough in 2008 and 2009, but this time she was in no mood to cope with the vagaries of the engineered track. She would barely tolerate a gallop.
Still, she showed up against a field made up of the usual local suspects. The exception was the Midwestern invader Rinterval, a minor stakes winner with plenty of synthetic track experience.
Under an inspired ride by Rafael Bejarano, Rinterval was pressed on the lead and then hooked by Zenyatta with a furlong to run. Normally, that would have been the end of the drama, but Zenyatta could not put her opponent away. Then ran together to the wire, with Zenyatta winning by only a neck.
19. October 2, 2010
By the fall of 2010, the synthetic surface at Santa Anita had worn out its welcome. But in order to facilitate its timely removal, the autumn meet run by the Oak Tree Racing Association had to be shifted to Hollywood Park.
This did not bother Shirreffs in the least. Lady’s Secret Stakes, now set to be run right down the road from Barn 55, would provide the perfect prelude to Zenyatta’s final start in the Classic. The mood around the stable was anticipatory, laced with a trace of melancholy. No one wanted to imagine life without Zenyatta.
So they soldiered on, with the whole sports world watching. Oprah Winfrey’s W Magazine produced a splashy Zenyatta spread. The major networks sent film crews, including the first team from 60 Minutes. Zenyatta’s every twitch and snort became news, which amused those close to the mare who wondered where everyone had been for the last 36 months.
Shirreffs and Moss went out of their way to praise their troops. Steve Willard was already a star. Assistant Felipe Rivera kept a firm hand on the rudder. Mario Espinoza, the man in Zenyatta’s stall, always knew more than he was letting on, while veteran Freddy Miller, Willard’s sidekick on the pony, brought decades of racing lore to the party. Michelle Jensen and Frank Leal completed the Shirreffs brain trust.
The Lady’s Secret came and went without fuss, even though Zenyatta’s half-length score over the classy filly Switch was hardly a dominating performance. It didn’t need to be. It was the next one that counted. Rachel Alexandra had disappeared from training, which left Zenyatta at the top of the mountain, going for a perfect career of 20 starts. At night, under the lights at Churchill Downs.
20. November 6, 2010
“I have to attribute a lot of her success to David Flores,” Shirreffs would say, referring to Zenyatta's jockey through her first three starts. “He was so patient with her in those earlier races. The experiences were positive and helped her a lot.”
So it was that this reporter found himself in a ground-level box seat at Churchill Downs on the night of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic alongside David Flores, who flew in just for the race, and Pam Gomez, wife of Garrett Gomez, who would be riding Whitney Handicap winner Blame.
“I had to be here for my girl,” Flores said, as he perched on the iron pipes of the box railing.
Gomez was more concerned with her husband’s wellbeing than speculation about the race. He had broken his shoulder in a racing accident two days earlier and was riding through the pain.
And while most of the Zenyatta skeptics had long since surrendered, in Blame they thought she had a worthy foe. The field around them included Lookin At Lucky, Quality Road, and Haynesfield, who had just upset Blame. But all eyes were on Zenyatta, at even-money.
Through the opening stages of the race, the sight was grim. Zenyatta clearly was not comfortable on the tricky Churchill Downs dirt. She all but lost touch with the field around the first turn, as Smith did what he could to steady her stride. She finally found her rhythm down the backside and began a modest run. But she still was farther back than she’d ever been in those 19 previous wins.
Meanwhile, Gomez was giving Blame a smooth trip, saving ground where he could and then barreling through a wall of horses to go after Lookin At Lucky on the lead. By then Zenyatta had worked her way through the field, not without some difficulty, and was giving chase. But this was not a nondescript California filly she was trying to catch. This was a world-class colt.
Blame had to be that good to withstand the final lunge from Zenyatta at the end of the long Churchill Downs stretch. It was not long enough, though, for her. The margin was a head.
Disappointment was leavened by the fact that Zenyatta was honorable to the end, running the same race that took her deep into the souls of the Thoroughbred community. Time after time, she spotted the opposition valuable ground, as if to say, “Let’s make it interesting. I’ll tie one hand behind my back.”
Zenyatta retired to songs of praise from far and wide. She was voted 2010 Horse of the Year. She entered the Hall of Fame alongside Rachel Alexandra. And in 2012 a life-sized statue by the incredible Nina Kaiser was unveiled near the grandstand fountain at Santa Anita Park.
Of all that was written about Zenyatta’s career and her glorious, final battle on that Kentucky night, none quite matched the tribute offered by David Milch, a dedicated racehorse owner whose passion for the game was rivaled only by his television career as the creator of Deadwood and NYPD Blue.
At the time, Milch was busy writing episodes for the HBO racing show Luck, on which this reporter was a staff writer. Milch wondered if the Daily Racing Form might be interested in a few thoughts about Zenyatta in the wake of her final race, and the answer was a grateful yes.
Milch (left) wrote: “It seemed to me in the aftermath of the race, the last gift which was given had to do with the separation of that feeling of appreciation from the illusion of invincibility.
“The final and deepest gift that she had to give was the opportunity to accept all the qualifications of our finitude without having that dilute or alloy the joy she made available to us.
“In other experiences, if one is lucky, we get that same last chance to distinguish between what joy comes to us and what I imagine is the laughter of the Gods. I forget who it was that said, ‘Every victory leaves something drastic and bitter in the cup.’
“In that sense, it took all of her races and the conclusion of her career to come to the last draught of what was in the cup. And to realize still, that in what one experienced as drastic and bitter for a moment was the final essence of victory. The victory was in the flowering of humility as the last component of the mix of feelings that she had made available, and how absolutely irrelevant her defeat is to the experience that she gave us, for all that period of time.”
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