clusion when the Santa Anita faithful graciously applauded reigning Horse of the Year Curlin as he walked off the track after he finished a tiring fourth in his title defense of the Classic. On November 7, 2009, the stately Santa Anita grandstand, which had borne witness to fan favorites Seabiscuit and John Henry in heydays past, again shook to its rafters with a thunderous roar from the crowd when Zenyatta made a powerful late move against a top-class field to become the first female winner of the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic and to remain undefeated from 14 career starts. Her unprecedented accomplishment under Smith provided a fairytale ending to two days of thrilling Breeders’ Cup competition, which also featured other standout performances by members of her gender. Zenyatta’s stablemate, Life Is Sweet, gave trainer John Shirreffs a proverbial feather in his base-
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ball cap when she captured the Ladies’ Classic on November 6, shortly after 3-year-old Midday (GB) defeated her elders in the Filly & Mare Turf and She Be Wild and Informed Decision sewed up Eclipse Awards for their divisions with respective victories in the Juvenile Fillies and the Filly & Mare Sprint. Goldikova extended the feminine trend on the male-dominated Saturday program when she won her second Mile, and the first of two eventual Eclipse Awards as North America’s Champion Turf Female, with a four-wide rally on the Santa Anita sod. Led by Conduit, who repeated his 2008 triumph in the Turf, the European delegation took plenty of hardware back across the pond in 2009. Man of Iron kicked off the two-day event with a nose victory in the 1 3/4-mile Marathon, Pounced lived up to his name in the Grade 2 Juvenile Turf and 30-1 Vale of York (Ire) surprised in the Juvenile. In other action, Dancing in Silks got the best of an electrifying four-horse photo in the Sprint, Tapitsfly won the Juvenile Fillies Turf, Furthest Land upset the newly granted Grade 1 Dirt Mile at 21-1 and California Flag gamely led from start to finish in the 14-horse Turf Sprint.
Goldikova (Ire) defeated males in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
To the delight of her many loyal fans, Zenyatta reached the Breeders’ Cup winner’s circle at Santa Anita in 2008 and 2009.
Lisa Groothedde, a national award-winning former editor of The Texas Thoroughbred, is the owner of Thoroughbred Information Agency and www.thoroughbredinfo.com.
PADDOCK 2012
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