Dick Jerardi: At Breeders' Cup, Zenyatta caps perfect career with perfect race

You can measure most horses by a clock. Zenyatta is not like that. She can only be measured by her record - a perfect 14-for-14 after she beat all the best horses in training.

"I still never got to the bottom of her," said Zenyatta's jockey, Mike Smith. "That's the amazing thing. She still had run left."

When Zenyatta had to run really fast to win, she ran really fast. She ran the mile-and-a-quarter in 2:00.62, but that wasn't the story. Last early, as is her custom, Zenyatta was still ninth, 7 lengths back, at the quarter-pole. She ran those final 440 yards in 23 seconds. It was like she was sprinting at the end of horse racing's classic distance. Her Beyer speed figure of 112 was easily the best of her career.

"She didn't even take a breath after the race was over," Smith said. "It's just incredible . . . She's sent from God. It's his filly. I think he wanted a horse and made her and brought her down here to race against everyone."

Zenyatta's connections had taken few risks with her career. Then, in her final race, they went all in. And she became the first female to win the Classic.

"We're over the moon," said Zenyatta's owner, Jerry Moss. "We knew we wanted to do this for her to prove what we thought. She deserved this chance. She just performed so beautifully . . . and she's got an unbeaten record to go into the history books."

Zenyatta won 13 of her 14 races at Del Mar, Hollywood Park or Santa Anita. Her only race on dirt and outside California was at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, where she dominated the 2007 female champion Ginger Punch. That race made people really start to take notice of Zenyatta. This race will be the lasting memory.

The Bob Baffert-trained Richard's Kid finished sixth. He didn't mind.

"I was disappointed that he didn't run better, but what a thrill seeing history being made by Zenyatta," Baffert said. "It was the only time in horse racing that I didn't mind getting beat in a big race.

"If they don't reward her with Horse of the Year, it would be a travesty, or at least co-Horses of the Year [with Rachel Alexandra]. Zenyatta made the Breeders' Cup. And the way she won. I've never seen a crowd so captivated. It felt like a horse winning the third leg of the Triple Crown."

One could quibble with the main-track races being decided on Pro Ride, a surface that clearly hurts horses that don't train or race on it. Horses based in Europe won six of the 14 BC races; Southern California horses won four others.

The fans obviously loved it - 96,496 appeared at Santa Anita over the 2 days. Players around the world bet $144,599,205, including $1,170,413 to win on 5-2 favorite Zenyatta. The one winning Pick 6 ticket was worth $1,838,305.

The $2.7 million that Zenyatta earned for the Classic win was nearly as much as she had earned in her previous 13 races. Which is the way it should be. They went for it and got it. So any quibbling is beside the point. Zenyatta was up to the moment with the best performance of her career.

Voters will decide Horse of the Year. Zenyatta won five races in 2009, finishing it off with an overpowering win against males in the best field assembled all year. Rachel won all eight of her races, set a record in the Kentucky Oaks, beat males in the Preakness, the Haskell and the Woodward and had the best year by a 3-year-old filly since Ruffian. And a good case could be made that it was better than the legendary Ruffian's 1975 because of those three wins against males.

Rachel's owner, Jess Jackson, kept her out of the BC because he objected to the artificial surface for the main-track races. The 3-year-old Rachel is going to race in 2010. The 5-year-old Zenyatta is not.

"It's not really up to us," the classy Moss said about the vote. "We just brought the horse here. We beat whoever showed up, frankly. She ran her race and she won.

"I'm not taking anything away from that other filly. As I've always said, she ran a tremendous campaign, and they deserve a lot of credit. I think it's a tough one. So you guys are going to have to figure it out."

Zenyatta's fans need no convincing. The old grandstand was jumping when she strolled casually by during the post parade, last then, too. When she passed them again, she was behind 11 horses. When she came around for the final time, the grandstand was shaking.

"There are tears coming to my eyes," said Zenyatta's trainer, John Shirreffs. "I can't believe it. She is a great, great filly. She is all heart. The way the crowd took to her was just amazing. They cheered for her, they clapped for her, they love her."

In the Classic, Zenyatta beat the winners of the following 2009 Grade I stakes: Kentucky Derby, Belmont Stakes, Travers, Jockey Club Gold Cup, Pacific Classic, Champion Stakes (England), Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (England), Sussex Stakes (England) Arlington Million, Man O' War, Manhattan, Kilroe, Turf Classic and Santa Anita Handicap.

"I believe that if there was still another horse in front of her another length or so, she would have caught him, too," Smith said. "She just does what she has to do . . . If they run fast, she'll just run faster."

Horses really aren't like that. Romantics want to believe it is so. But it just isn't.

The very rare horse runs just fast enough to win. America's last Triple Crown winner, Affirmed, was like that. The great colt simply would not let another horse pass him.

Zenyatta is the reverse Affirmed. She passes all the horses. No horse can resist her. She passed 11 in her first race on Nov. 22, 2007. She passed 11 in her last race. In her 14 races, she passed 84 horses.

Watching Zenyatta is like seeing racing from another era. These days, horses simply do not do what she does. But she did it. And, this time, it was not in racing's shadows. It was squarely in the sunlight for all to see.

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