You can measure most horses by a clock. Zenyatta is not like that. She can only be measured by her record - a perfect 14-for-14 after she beat all the best horses in training.
"I still never got to the bottom of her," said Zenyatta's jockey, Mike Smith. "That's the amazing thing. She still had run left."
When Zenyatta had to run really fast to win, she ran really fast. She ran the mile-and-a-quarter in 2:00.62, but that wasn't the story. Last early, as is her custom, Zenyatta was still ninth, 7 lengths back, at the quarter-pole. She ran those final 440 yards in 23 seconds. It was like she was sprinting at the end of horse racing's classic distance. Her Beyer speed figure of 112 was easily the best of her career.
"She didn't even take a breath after the race was over," Smith said. "It's just incredible . . . She's sent from God. It's his filly. I think he wanted a horse and made her and brought her down here to race against everyone."
Zenyatta's connections had taken few risks with her career. Then, in her final race, they went all in. And she became the first female to win the Classic.
"We're over the moon," said Zenyatta's owner, Jerry Moss. "We knew we wanted to do this for her to prove what we thought. She deserved this chance. She just performed so beautifully . . . and she's got an unbeaten record to go into the history books."
Zenyatta won 13 of her 14 races at Del Mar, Hollywood Park or Santa Anita. Her only race on dirt and outside California was at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas, where she dominated the 2007 female champion Ginger Punch. That race made people really start to take notice of Zenyatta. This race will be the lasting memory.
The Bob Baffert-trained Richard's Kid finished sixth. He didn't mind.
