Friday's Zenyatta Workout

Here is a report on Zenyatta's workout this morning courtesy of the Breeders' Cup...

WORKS SEVEN FURLONGS

Two-time champion Zenyatta, by design, was put through a major exercise on Friday, working seven furlongs in 1:27 1/5 over the Hollywood Park main track under regular jockey Mike Smith. The splits for the workout were :38 4/5, :50 4/5, 1:03 1/5 and 1:15 1/5. She completed the final quarter-mile in :24.

The work was the second of three workouts scheduled before Zenyatta departs for Kentucky on November 2 to defend her title in the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on November 6. Breaking into the work at the three-quarter pole, the undefeated mare worked in company with stablemates Sorbonne, with Isabelle Bourez up, and El Vino, with Steve Willard up. She easily passed Sorbonne rounding the turn for home and then finished almost on even terms with El Vino.

“The objective today was to not have her pass anyone,” said trainer John Shirreffs. “We wanted to keep her focused throughout the entire work because she tends to slack off when she gets by another horse. We wanted her to have a fresh horse with her the whole time. It went pretty much as we had planned.”

“I got a great response from her,” said Smith, who noted that the track was a little heavy due to the rain the last few days. “She was a little aggressive leaving there, which is good because it shows that she wants to do more. The goal was to keep her focused and she did that. She caught the first horse (Sorbonne) pretty easily and then took a breather around the turn. I asked her to focus again and go after Steve’s horse (El Vino) and that horse was really focused. She got to him pretty nicely. We wanted 1:27 and we got 1:27 1/5. One second off seems pretty good to me.”

Zenyatta’s next workout out will be Saturday, October 30. She will leave California on a Tex Sutton chartered flight on Tuesday, November 2.