LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Go, baby, go!
Racing’s universal cry will roar out of millions of throats this evening when Zenyatta, the nation’s celebrity of the hour, unleashes her spine-tingling stretch run in her bid to win the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.
For the 25 seconds it will take her to run the last two furlongs of the mile-and-a-quarter race, Zenyatta is going to have the country in a state of enthralled, frenzied excitement.
Will she make it — or will she fall short? Will she win her 20th straight race or will she, finally, stub her hoof?
The Breeders’ Cup is racing’s championship event with 14 races and $26 million in prize money up for grabs, but in all its 26 runnings, no horse has so overwhelmed the scene as Zenyatta, a 6-year-old mare.
It is what prompted top trainer Bob Baffert to say, “This is Zenyatta’s Breeders’ Cup.”
In a word, she is the show, even though some of the best horses on the planet — such as Goldikova, Workforce, Midday, Blind Luck and Gio Ponti — are also on the stage.
On the Downs’ chilly backstretch, hordes of fans, photographers, reporters, officials and security guards envelop Zenyatta as she walks to and from the track for her daily exercise.
She is a towering horse with such an imposing physique, her admirers stand in awe. Among them yesterday was one of the all-time great jockeys, Sandy Hawley, who rode more than 6,000 winners.
“She is absolutely amazing,” he said. “I’ve never seen anything like her. And the way she does it, the way she comes charging off the pace, she gives everyone a heart attack.”
Nearly every trainer on the grounds rushes to the rail to see her and watch her gallop.
“Zenyatta is famous in Japan, and the attention she is getting here reinforces what we have been hearing in Japan,” said Trainer Adachio Akio, who brought Japan’s best dirt horse, Espoir City, to run against Zenyatta.
Trainer Al Stall Jr. will saddle one of Zenyatta’s chief rivals, Blame.
“She is simply remarkable,” Stall said of Zenyatta. “She is 6 years old, and it is so hard to keep horses going at the top level and keep them sound and mentally alert. It’s truly amazing.”
Trainer Nick Zito, who hopes to beat Zenyatta with Fly Down, is one of her greatest fans.
“You are what your record is and her record speaks for itself,” he said. “She is amazingly different, a filly so big she looks like a colt.
“But I think her success is related to her connections. Her owners, Jerry and Ann Moss, her trainer John Shirreffs and her jockey, Mike Smith, they all come together and produce good karma. It’s the whole camp, a lot of good feeling. With that, you pick up a length or two.
“I go back to great ones like Affectionately, Ta Wee, Shuvee. And Zenyatta ranks up there with the best of them.”
But if it seems the whole world is rooting for Zenyatta to win today, a large segment of experts expects her to lose. The Daily Racing Form, racing’s so-called bible, lists 25 Cup handicappers. Nine rate Zenyatta on top, but another nine think Blame will beat her.
The least impressed of all is well-known turf author and columnist Andy Beyer, who wrote in the Washington Post, “If you’re a hard-headed gambler and not a sentimentalist, you’ll bet against Zenyatta.
“She is not even the most accomplished female on the Churchill Downs card — a distinction belonging to Goldikova.”
All this proves the old adage: It’s a difference of opinion that makes the race.
But when they begin that long run down the homestretch below the twin spires today, every eye will be on Zenyatta and every voice will be yelling, “Go,
baby, go.”
