Zenyatta now set to make 2009 bow at Hollypark

Zenyatta, the unbeaten 5-year-old mare who was scratched last Friday from the $350,000 Louisville Distaff at Churchill Downs when the track came up sloppy, is now scheduled to make her 2009 debut in the $150,000 Grade II Milady Handicap, a 1 1/16-mile race over Cushion Track, at Hollywood Park on May 23.

Trainer John Shirreffs told The Daily Racing Form of his plans Monday, only three days after the daughter of Street Cry was withdrawn from the Louisville Distaff. Shirreffs and owner Jerry Moss originally wanted to run Zenyatta in the Hawthorne Handicap, but that Grade III race was canceled before Hollywood Park's spring-summer meet began as part of management's purse cuts.

Zenyatta, a finalist for 2008 Horse of the Year and the Eclipse Award winner as top older filly and mare last year, is 9-0 in her career with earnings of $2,144,500. She capped a 7-0 campaign last year with a victory in the Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic on Oct. 24 at Santa Anita on a day when the brilliant mare received a standing ovation from many in the crowd while on her way to the winner's circle under jockey Mike Smith.

When I talked to Shirreffs two days before the start of the Hollypark meet, he said Zenyatta was training great.

"The rest did her, I think, a lot of good," he said. "She looks great, carrying good weight and training very well. She just looks like she's rounding into great form.
She'd had a long series of races, so she needed a little break. Obviously she was peaking for the Breeders' Cup so then there has to be a little letdown after that."

Shirreffs also trains Life Is Sweet, another top filly who is being pointed toward the Milady. The $300,000 Vanity Handicap on June 27 at Hollywood Park is also on the radar for Zenyatta. The Vanity is a 1 1/8-mile race.