Zenyatta

In this continuing series, TDN's Senior Racing Editor Steve Sherack catches up with the connections of promising maidens to keep on your radar. Counterbalance (f, 2, Caravaggio--Out of Balance, by Kitten's Joy) came flashing home to finish fourth in a race that held together quite well over opening weekend at Del Mar. Overlooked at 37-1 in her debut going five furlongs on dirt for trainer Michael McCarthy, the Amerman Racing homebred broke alertly from her inside draw, but was quickly outfooted. She was heading the wrong direction while under a...

Though the grandstand remains quiet during the off-season at Keeneland, the racetrack does not, as trainers' barns grow and flourish with the continuous arrival of 2-year-olds ready to take the next step towards debuting as fully-fledged racehorses. It's a time of year filled with a sense of excitement for what's to come as trainers, owners and fans alike brim with the anticipation of watching who might develop into future stars. This feeling is one that seems to reverberate most throughout Cherie DeVaux's barn following the recent arrival of one very...

Trainer Christophe Clement sadly passed away without being inducted into the National Museum of Racing's 2025 Hall of Fame class, and I freely admit that I did not cast a ballot for him again. Something is amiss because it feels like a failure on my part, the voters and by the system. When the envelope has arrived in the mail these past few years and I look down at the list of trainers it always fills my cup full of dread. Take your medicine, I tell myself, but it's so...

Among the some 170 catalogued horses expected to breeze during Wednesday's fourth session of the under-tack preview for the Ocala Breeders' Sales Company's Spring Sale of 2-Year-Olds in Training, one colt stands out on paper thanks to his famous grandmother. Shuggy (Twirling Candy) (hip 668) is the first foal out of champion Zenyatta's unraced daughter Zellda (Medaglia d'Oro). Mayberry Farm is consigning the bay colt on behalf of Ann Holbrook Moss, who campaigned Zenyatta with her ex-husband, the late Jerry Moss. "Everything Zenyatta is hers," April Mayberry said of Holbrook....

5th-GP, $94k, Msw, 3yo, 7f, 1:26p.m. ET Though not the most expensive in the field, TOTAL SENSATION (Speightstown) comes into this race with perhaps the best-known family as the son of Eblouissante (Bernardini), the half-sister to Hall of Famer Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}). A $300,000 yearling from KEESEP in 2023, and racing for the partnership of Qatar Racing, CHC, Inc., and Trilogy USA, the colt is a half-brother to GSW Confidence Game (Candy Ride {Arg}) and GSP The Process (More Than Ready) from the family of the aforementioned Horse of...

There is one moment that still sticks out to April Mayberry from Zenyatta's time at her family's farm in Ocala. From the day the daughter of Street Cry (Ire) arrived at Mayberry Farm, she was straightforward but not necessarily a standout. That is, until the future superstar had her first breeze. Mayberry's mother Jeanne instructed rider Ronaldo Rodas to take it easy, let the filly follow behind four or five other 2-year-olds and see how she handled it. As the story goes, in a move that would later become her...

I got into racing via horses who had nothing to do with racing, as it is for many people with no family ties to rely on. Horses were a side hobby for me due to competitive swimming taking up enormous amounts of my time (a contentious topic in my house when I entered those famously stable teenage years) and my introduction to Thoroughbreds was, ironically, thanks to a mistake on my part. I had asked my instructor once what the fastest horse in the world was, as someone had erroneously...

7th-DMR, $54K, Msw, 2yo, f, 5fT, 6:30 p.m. ET. MADAME SECRETARY (Constitution) makes her first start for MyRacehorse and Brook Smith after she was purchased at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling Sale for $900,000 by Rocket Ship and Gandharvi. Sent to Richard Mandella, the filly is out of MSP Nina Fever (Borrego), who was taken home by Blandford Bloodstock for $500,000 while Madame Secretary was in-utero. This dam produced GI Frizette Stakes heroine and $3 million Fasig-Tipton Mixed Sale buy Nickname (Scat Daddy), who herself is responsible for Irish group stakes...

When bloodstock agent David Ingordo bought Zenyatta (Street Cry {Ire}) for just $60,000 out of the 2005 Keeneland September Sale he probably thought he had found that once-in-a-lifetime horse. Little did he know that the 2010 Horse of the Year, who was admitted to the Hall of Fame in 2016, might not be his very best purchase. Fourteen years after he discovered Zenyatta, he picked out Flightline (Tapit), paying $1 million for the future superstar. There was nothing coincidental about any of these selections. Over the years, Ingordo has solidified...

David Ingordo talks Zenyatta, Flightline, HISA and so much more on the TDN's Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland.

Santa Anita Park is approaching its 90th anniversary Dec. 26 with the opening of the Classic Meet, and the track is calling on the public to vote for the 13 'top moments' in track history, it was announced via presser. Voting on those moments will be open until Friday, Nov. 8 at 5:00 p.m. PT with the top 13 vote-getters being featured in Santa Anita's wall calendar, which is provided to on-track patrons on opening day each year. There are 15 nominations to choose from, which were selected by a...

When it comes to winning Breeders' Cup races, no rider does it better than "Big Money" Mike Smith. His 27 wins leads all jockeys and is seven wins better than runner-up John Velazquez. With the Breeders' Cup quickly approaching, Smith sat down with the team at the TDN Writers' Room Podcast presented by Keeneland and took us on a trip down memory lane. The Hall of Famer was the Guest of the Week. Of the 27 wins, is one his favorite? "It would have to be Zenyatta [in the 2009...