NEWS

Zenyatta begins again in Santa Margarita

Posted: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 5:02 PM

ZENYATTA

Benoit & Associates photo

by Jeff Lowe

Less than half an hour after Horse of the Year Rachel Alexandra begins her season in the New Orleans Ladies Stakes on Saturday, Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner Zenyatta will start her year in the $250,000 Santa Margarita Invitational Handicap (G1) at Santa Anita Park.

The scheduled post time for the Santa Margarita is 6:36 p.m. EST, 21 minutes after the New Orleans Ladies.

Rachel Alexandra will face only four opponents. Eight older females were entered to oppose Zenyatta in her first start since becoming the only female winner of the $5-million Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 7 during the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park. She is unbeaten in 14 career starts.

Both Rachel Alexandra and Zenyatta are preparing for a scheduled showdown in the $5-million Apple Blossom Invitational Stakes (G1) on April 9 at Oaklawn Park.

Owners Jerry and Ann Moss said after the Classic that Zenyatta would be retired and bred this spring, but she never left trainer John Shirreffs’ barn and breezed several times before the Mosses announced on January 16 that she would race again.

The six-year-old mare covered six furlongs in a bullet 1:11.80 handily on March 5 in her final move for the 1 1/8-mile Santa Margarita.

Zenyatta is beginning her season two months earlier than last year, when she started with a victory in the Milady Handicap (G2) on May 23 at Hollywood Park under 126 pounds. She will carry 127 pounds on Saturday and spot her competition between 12 and 19 pounds.

“It is quite a bit of weight to start out the year with,” said Mike Smith, Zenyatta’s jockey. “But fortunate for us, she's a big mare and she carries the weight very well. So, hopefully, it won't bother her too much.

“If she gets her opportunity, I think she's going to run big first time back. I mean, she's really ready. She's ready for something right now and she's certainly training like it anyway. I'm really looking forward to it.”

El Encino Stakes (G2) winner Pretty Unusual and La Canada Stakes (G2) winner Striking Dancer are the only other graded stakes winner in the Santa Margarita.

Striking Dancer has the second-highest weight assignment at 115 pounds. She scored her first stakes victory in the La Canada on February 14 for trainer Ken McPeek and owner Stevestan Stables.

Pretty Unusual has raced twice on turf since she won the El Encino on January 17 at Santa Anita.

Gripsholm Castle and Floating Heart, the second- and third-place finishers in the La Canada, also are in the field.

Jeff Lowe is a Thoroughbred Times staff writer

Santa Margarita Invitational H.