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Zenyatta punctuated both an undefeated season and the first-ever Ladies’ Day championship program with an emphatic 1 1/2-length victory in the $1,832,000 Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1) on Friday at the Oak Tree meet at Santa Anita Park.

Jerry and Ann Moss’s four-year-old Street Cry (Ire) filly swept wide around the far turn and had no problem disposing of seven opponents in the $2-million race. Cocoa Beach (Chi) rallied from the inside to be second with her Godolphin Stable stablemate Music Note another 1 1/2 lengths back in third.

The win was Zenyatta’s ninth in as many starts. Despite her 1-to-2 odds, trainer John Shirreffs said he only expressed confidence in her victory when the race went official.

“When she hits that next gear, she’s just something else,” Shirreffs said of Zenyatta’s move around the far turn. “That was Zenyatta’s race. I didn’t count on victory until she crossed the wire, though.”

Longshot Bear Now set the pace in the 1 1/8-mile race through fractions of :23.71, :48.08, and 1:11.08 before yielding to the Godolphin horses. Zenyatta, with Racing Hall of Fame jockey Mike Smith aboard, quickly pounced on them turning for home and surged past under a hand ride to prevail in 1:46.85 on the synthetic Pro-Ride surface.

“I was second best today, it’s as simple as that,” jockey Ramon Dominguez said after Cocoa Beach failed to keep pace with Zenyatta in the lane. “Zenyatta’s a special filly.”

Music Note’s jockey Javier Castellano agreed and said that his filly ran well but was no match for Zenyatta in the stretch.

Depending on what reigning Horse of the Year Curlin does in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on Saturday, Zenyatta could receive some consideration for the Eclipse Award as Horse of the Year with champion older female honors all but wrapped up.

“I think it’s not in our hands, to tell you the truth. Obviously, we’ve been reading about the possibility,” Jerry Moss said of Horse of the Year speculation. “Look, we’re just thrilled that she’s won this race, and she seems to be at the top of her division rather firmly. I mean, to have, if I may say it, a champion, is a pretty ultimate thrill for us.”

Bred in Kentucky by Maverick Production Ltd., Zenyatta improved to nine wins in as many starts and boosted her earnings to $2,144,580. A half sister tio multiple Grade 1 winner Balance, she is out of the winning Kris S. mare Vertigineux.

Other impressive Kentucky-bred winners on the day were Stardom Bound in the $1,832,000 Bessemer Trust Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) and Forever Together in the $1,951,080 Emirates Airline Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf (G1).

Stardom Bound, a two-year-old filly by Tapit out of the Tarr Road mare My White Corvette, won her third straight Grade 1 race in the Juvenile Fillies and virtually locked up the two-year-old filly championship. Stardom Bound was purchased earlier this year by trainer Chris Paasch on behalf of owner Charles Cono for $375,000 at the Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March sale of selected two-year-olds in training.

Forever Together, a four-year-old by Belong to Me out of Constant Companion, by Relaunch, was bred by White Fox Farm and purchased by owner George Strawbridge for $240,000 at the 2006 Ocala Breeders’ Sales Co. March sale of selected two-year-olds in training.

The remaining Kentucky-bred winners were Karen Woods’s and Saud bin Khaled’s Maram, a homebred two-year-old filly by Sahm in the $1,035,080 Grey Goose Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf; and Juddmonte Farm’s Ventura, a homebred four-year-old filly by Chester House who won the $916,000 Sentient Flight Group Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint.

Santa Anita Park’s synthetic Pro-Ride surface produced a consistent stream of winners who rallied wide from off the pace , the first time the Breeders’ Cup World Championships were held on a synthetic track.

Through the first six main track races—which included all the Breeders’ Cup races contested on the Pro-Ride surface—every winner was at least three wide on the turn and all were third or further back in the field at the second point of call.

Jockey Garrett Gomez rode Ventura to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Sprint with a five-wide rally, coming from tenth place after four furlongs.

“It just seems like the ones who like [Pro-Ride], like it,” Gomez said. “It hasn’t been playing like this previously. I don’t know if the track changed.

“Zenyatta come from off the pace. Ventura come from off the pace. Stardom Bound come from off the pace. I think maybe they were just the best.”

All the winners had previous wins on a synthetic track or turf. Gomez’s mount in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic (G1), Hystericalady, extended her winless record on synthetic tracks to six races.

For a video replay of the Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic, click here: http://breederscup.com/video.aspx?id=36165 

Courtesy: www.thorughbredtimes.com

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