DEL MAR – Like thousands of other horse racing followers, Laura de Seroux has been paying close attention to the 2008 campaign of the 4-year-old filly Zenyatta.
“Absolutely, I'm so impressed with her, she bowls me over,” de Seroux said yesterday. “I've watched all of her races. She looks to me like the 2008 version of Azeri.”
De Seroux, a Rancho Santa Fe resident and now-retired trainer, conditioned then 4-year-old filly Azeri through seven straight Grade I or Grade II victories from March through October of 2002. The last came in the Breeders' Cup Distaff at Arlington Park. The winning streak, and the final victory, were the decisive factors in Azeri being named Horse of the Year for 2002.
Now comes Zenyatta, 4-for-4 in 2008 and 6-for-6 in her career entering today's $300,000, Grade II Clement L. Hirsch Handicap, a race Azeri won twice. The Hirsch was No. 5 in the 2002 streak of Azeri and No. 11 as the streak was extended through the summer of 2003. It ended one race later in the Lady's Secret Handicap at Santa Anita.
As winning streaks become longer the pressure inevitably mounts. “It makes you more careful about the races you select to run in,” de Seroux said.
But if there's any pressure on John Shirreffs, trainer of Zenyatta, it's just not in his nature to show it.
“We really don't think about it,” Shirreffs said yesterday. “We just go through our regular routine and our preparations. Whatever happens in the afternoon (races) happens.
“Trying to preserve something is probably the best way to lose it.”
Zenyatta, a daughter of Street Cry out of the mare Vertigineux, was purchased for $60,000 from the Keeneland September yearling sale in 2005.
“Zenyatta was one of those rough-framed types, but she looked like she could fill out into something,” Shirreffs said. “She filled out a lot more than we ever expected.” Zenyatta stands 17 hands (5 feet eight inches) tall at the crest of the shoulders and weighs 1,200 pounds.
“She's more of an amazon than Azeri was,” said de Seroux. Azeri, de Seroux estimated, was about four inches shorter and approximately 200 pounds lighter.
The narrowest margin of victory so far for Zenyatta, half a length, came in her last race, the Grade I Vanity Handicap on July 5 at Hollywood Park. That gives hope for Vanity 2-3 finishers Tough Tiz's Sis and Silver Swallow, who are back to challenge and assigned 119 and 113 pounds to carry, respectively, in the Hirsch to 124 for Zenyatta.
Shirreffs has been an outspoken critic of synthetic surfaces, particularly the Polytrack as it played in its inaugural season here last year. Immediately after the Vanity he was noncommittal about running Zenyatta here but said yesterday that after seeing the change in the surface over the first week of the meeting, he made the decision regarding today's race.
Zenyatta worked 5 furlongs over the Polytrack in 1:01 a week ago, which ranked 32nd of 63 horses going the distance that morning. Shirreffs hasn't exactly been won over.
“I really don't have any comment on the track,” he said.
Notable
California Blaze, a 3-year-old colt owned by
Charlotte Wrather and trained by
Darrell Vienna, died of a heart attack on the track during training Thursday morning, track vets reported. The
Unusual Heat colt had two wins from six starts with earnings of $62,660 and finished sixth in the first division of the opening day Oceanside Stakes on July 16 in his last start . . .
Highland Torree ($8) and
Coco Belle ($7.60) won divisions of yesterday's featured C.E.R.F. Handicap.
Hank Wesch: (619) 293-1853; hank.wesch@uniontrib.com
