Zenyatta retired, will be sent to Lane’s End in Kentucky
By Steve Andersen
Daily Racing Form
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Zenyatta has been officially retired and her new home beginning next month will be Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky., the farm announced on Wednesday.
Zenyatta, whose 19-race unbeaten streak ended with a second-place finish by a head to Blame in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs on Nov. 6, is expected to be flown to Kentucky in early December, trainer John Shirreffs said on Wednesday.
The wildly popular 6-year-old Zenyatta has been based at Shirreffs’s barn at Hollywood Park since Nov. 7 and will remain with him through November.
Wednesday’s announcement by Lane’s End ends speculation that Zenyatta would stay in training for a 2011 campaign, although Shirreffs had said since the Breeders’ Cup that there were no plans to race her. No breeding plans have been finalized, he said.
The top stallion at Lane’s End is A.P. Indy, who commands a $150,000 fee.
Last November, after Zenyatta won the BC Classic at Santa Anita, she was announced as retired, a decision that was reversed in January of this year by owners Jerry and Ann Moss.
LIFETIME PPs: Zenyatta’s career past performances (PDF)
Before Zenyatta leaves California next month, she is scheduled to be paraded before the public at Hollywood Park on Dec. 5.
Details of the Dec. 5 event are still being finalized, according to track president Jack Liebau. Jerry Moss and Liebau discussed the event on Tuesday, Liebau said.
“We haven’t worked out the details,” Liebau said. “We’re getting a bunch of calls from people who want to see the horse.”
For the last six months, Zenyatta has been a popular attraction on the backstretches of Del Mar, Hollywood Park, and especially at Churchill Downs on the week of the Breeders’ Cup. Shirreffs said Lane’s End would attempt to accommodate Zenyatta’s fans in some capacity in the future.
“They said they’d work with it,” Shirreffs said.
In the last week, Zenyatta’s routine has varied from walking at Shirreffs’s barn to undergoing light exercise on the main track or backstretch training track. Wednesday, she was jogged on the main track, but that was primarily for a set of action photographs commissioned by Ann Moss, Shirreffs said.
“We don’t want to let her get too high,” he said.
In the last week, Shirreffs said fans have continued to reach out to Zenyatta since her loss at Churchill Downs.
“We’ve gotten a lot of fan mail and support,” he said. “People want to come out and see her.”
bc
Happy Retirement
Id love to see a Zenyatta x Pulpit baby :D
Susan
Thank you Zenyatta for taking us on the ride of a lifetime. And thank you to all involved who have been so very gracious in sharing you with all of your fans. All the best to you in this new chapter of your life.
Mary
Thank you Zenyatta! It’s been an amazing ride! I am so glad that I can say I lived through the “Zenyatta era”!!!!!
Joani Jiannine
It needs not be said that I and countless others are going to miss you; your dancing, your electrifying stretch runs that left my heart somewhere until you crossed the line in front and all your training videos from Mr. Shireffs! I am of the hopes that they will make a movie of your life on the track. To say I am sad to not be able to look forward to you racing again would be an understatement. I have been sad all day since I heard the news, but I wish you a long and happy life as a momma and lots of green grass to enjoy. Love you lot’s my Lady! Farewell and thank you for being so much a part of my life!
Jennifer Adelman
Dear Zenyatta, I am so happy about your retirement as you are very deserving of a beautiful pasture to be just a horse. You are magnificent horse and you will be a wonderful mother. Those people will spoil you as well I hope!!!
Mary
I’m so sad today. I never was able to see her run, in person, and was hoping I could see her run in 2011. I hope that Lane’s End will allow fans to see the great Zenyatta. Thank you Zenyatta, our Horse of the Year/s. Zenyatta, I pray you enjoy your new home in Kentucky.
JIM BOEHM
I really believe Z will miss us more than we will miss her. Z KNOWS exactly what she does on the track and thats how she has stolen our hearts. LOVE YOU Z !!!!
Stephanie Quilichini
Thank you to Team Zenyatta for a great ride!!
Sue
Dear Zen…I can’t imagine life without you in Calif.. You are a California girl & my heart just sank when I read that you are going to be sent to a ” retirement home “/ “stud farm.” I’m so afraid you will never receive the care & love you so much deserve; & the opportunities to dance for your adoring fans. I don’t know HOW Team Zenyatta can part with you; it’s totally unfathomable to me; to let you go!! If I should be able to win the lottery before Dec., I’ll spend it all on you ; to keep you here, & to make the boys pay to have a visit with you!
In the meanwhile, I’m thinking of making you a beautiful pearl necklace. I wonder what size neck you have. I have a store filled with beautiful beads ( all natural); but I think a strand of classic pearls, against your coat, would be just stunning. Can you just imagine it; new shoes, new shoes & a dance !!
Love every ounce of you!! Sue
Maggie
My eyes are full of tears right now. Zenyatta has given us the ride of our lives with each of her races. The last was the best, most exciting for all of us. Zenyatta we wish you lots of babies, pastures to run free to do your dance, which we loved to watch. We love you, lots of kisses and hugs go with you. God Bless you and your keepers.
Beatrice Lian
I’m really sad that Zenyatta is retired today. I was hoping against hope that Mr. & Mrs. Moss would consider letting her race further. But I know they have her best interests at heart and that she has earned her retirement. I hope to be able to see Zenyatta personally one day. She is so awe inspiring & endearing. Most definitely a unique & once in a lifetime gift from God!
Rosemarie Cola
Thank you Zenyatta for all you have given us. I will never forget you, my walls are filled with your image, you name will always be in my heart. Hopefully someday, I will get to see you in person since I could never make it to the see you run. May you have a wonderful retirement and many beautiful and fast babies.
And thank you to all Zenyatta’s connections for taking such good care of our Queen.
Andrea Kubovcik
Queen Z, you are one for the ages. You have truly joined the pantheon of the greats. So disappointed you couldn’t have stayed in your California home. Hope you will have time to graze, dance and drink Guinness in Kentucky and not have to be pregnant every year. Many thanks to the Moss and Shireffs connections for letting us all in on your thrilling and fun to watch life these past few years.
Peyton
Dear Z, Thank you so much for your amazing life on the track. You are the horse of all time. Anytime I see you my heart swells. You are my inspiration to do my best in everything I do. Thank you my Queen for giving me the chance to know you. I am proud to be your fan. Have fun in Kentucky. I hope you stay safe and happy. Best wishes in your new life. I love you!
Jan
Zenyatta symbolized so many things to all of us which evoked such strong emotions to so many thousands of people. We thank her owners,trainer etc for this unforgettable and truely emotional “ride of our lives”.
Judy Sims
I am both happy and sad at the news of your retirement. Mostly though I am grateful that you made it through your stunning career safe and sound. I’ve never completely gotten over witnessing the breakdown of the great Ruffian and prayed every time you left the starting gate that you would finish without injury win or lose. I hope Kentucky and Lanes’s End realize what a treasure they are getting and continue to let your fans get to visit you. Thank you and thank God for you. You are a bright and shining star and will always be one of if not the greatest race horses of all time.
Donna Frost
And God reached down upon the earth lifting up a handful of sand, blew it into the wind & name it Zenyatta!….
Good luck Miss Z & may you enjoy your paddock at Lane’s End where you will have the sun on your back & the wind forever blowing through your mane, as you & your offspring graze peacefully…You will be missed greatly by all of us who love you…
William
Dear Zenyatta
I really hope you get everything you wish for in life!
I also hope a movie is made about your life and hope
they don’t leave anything out. It is my dream to meet you
someday as well. Thank you do much for your energy
and love of the attention that you recieve!
Lots of love!
William
Patricia Emery
Zenyatta! I absolutely love the sounds of you parading around before you come east! I bet you will do some of your best dancing & prancing ever. But be sure to tell John & Jerry & Ann if you change your mind about leaving the warmth of sunny CA-I am sure they will listen! We live in New England & you will be closer to us…I hope you keep your website & let us know how things are going & when you can have visitors & accept treats!
You have captured the hearts of so many…we will keep you forever close
Elena Erdman
Oh, Zenyatta, my heart sank when I read you are going to Kentucky.. I will miss you so much… you have given me so much joy and hope and now you will be gone.. far from sunny California.. we know you love to run and can’t understand why they are sending you so far away.. I doubt that I will have the desire to go to any more horse races for a time.. these are some of the times that make fans so so unhappy.. have a safe trip and remember another California champion is at Lane’s End, the mighty handsome Rock Hard Ten.. I met A. P. Indy and loved him too.. I will go visit you on December 5… I love you and you will be in my heart forever as an inspiration.. your beautiful dances and your beautiful way… how could this happen? At least you are safe and whole.. thank God for that.. but so far away? How are your connections going to deal with that?
Cindy Foster
IT’S A DATE! WE WILL SEE YOU DECEMBER 5 FOR OUR LAST DANCE. GET READY FOR YOUR FANS TO OPEN THEIR HEARTS AND SOULS TO YOU JUST AS YOU HAVE DONE FOR US. WE LOVE YOU ZENNY:)
Dani
Dearest Zenyatta –
‘Every little thing you do is magic’….’and I know our love for you goes on.’
jahlgren
Oh, I’m both sad and relieved. I had hoped you could somehow stay in California for visitors even if you weren’t racing, and I hope that you will be as well cared for and as “spoiled” in Kentucky as you have been in California. I don’t know what I’m going to do without the prospect of some “Zenyatta” time.
I’m relieved because I was fearful you would be injured in some kind of freak thing like Ruffian or something. So….
I am SO grateful I got to see you win your pinnacle race, the 2009 Breeders Cup Classic. I got to see you walk from the paddock out to the track, and later when I recounted seeing you to my brother, I kept telling him how huge, magnificent and unusual you were, especially your prancing and back stance. Thank, dear Zenyatta, for a lifetime experience from a longtime track afficionado up here in Seattle. The memory of you will always be with me.
Lotsa love – get busy writing that book, making that commercial and maybe producing a baby with AP Indy. I’d like that – I’ve seen two champions in person – you and Seattle Slew, so as a Seattle gal, I’d be VERY happy with that combination.
phyllis Horn
Our Lady Z,
We are so happy to hear of your retirement!! You deserve every moment of it. Now go and relax and drive the boys crazy!! You will be a terrific mom and I know we just can’t wait to see what you deliver to an anxious and grateful public!!! Love and Hugs
Jennifer
I read about your retirement today at work. I was sitting at my desk dabbing the tears from my face. You are such a treasure, and your fans will miss you so much. It makes me so sad to know that I will never see you dance again.
A heartfelt thank-you to Jerry and Ann Moss for sharing you with us for another year. You will always be remembered by those of us who saw you run. And for those who didn’t? Well how do you explain the experience of watching Zenyatta? You can’t because your greatness defies explanation.
Paula Higgins
Well, I knew this day was coming and I knew exactly how I would feel when it did. But she owes us nothing and neither do Ann and Jerry Moss or John and Dottie Sherriffs. She is going to a good home and I know they have her very best interests at heart. It is easy to forget she is 6 years old because she is so spectacular. But it is time, and all I can hope is that they keep the site up so we can see how she is doing. It’s cold in Kentucky LOL! To her family in California: the day she leaves for Kentucky, you will all be in my thoughts. I know that will be one very tough day for everyone who loves her.
Joan
If I owned you I could never let you go so far away. I only saw you race in person one time, that was the BCC at CD on 11-6. You were magnificent, your greatest race, even in defeat. Your heart is huge, truly the heart of a champion. I will miss watching you but am happy to know that you are retiring happy and sound, no injury to slow you down. We will never see the likes of your greatness again
Leslie
I’m crying Z…. they’d best treat you kindly and well… of course they will. I’ll miss you so much! You are unique and touch so many people’s hearts. Land’s End, please find a way to keep us posted about Zenyatta. A “Z Cam” would be great!!! Take care Z!
Robin Porcelain
I am so glad that the decision was made to retire this amazing mare! She has nothing else to prove to anyone. Zenyatta’s pedigree matches very well with A. P. Indy. The cross gets an A+++ rating and one of the only other stallions that is such a good match with her is Giant’s Causeway. Since A. P. Indy is somewhat likely to be standing his last season in 2011, it is very logical to breed her to him first and that would be my guess. Thank you Jerry and Ann Moss and John Shireffs for your wonderful and loving management of Zenyatta. And, I can’t say enough about Mike Smith and the great way he rode her in every race. He brought her home safe and sound each time while remaining competitive; it isn’t always easy. May God bless you always, Zenyatta!
Kirk
Dear Z,
Thank you for without a doubt the most exciting sports moments of my life. We saw you win the Breeder’s Cup last year, and my wife and I followed you all the way from LA to Kentucky to watch you do it again. While we wept with the rest of your adoring fans, that close in the stretch was the most amazing horse racing has ever seen. We are totally indebted to the Moss family for letting us be amazed by you again when other owners would have taken the easy road to a few more dollars and retire you early. You have always been THE perfect horse. Thanks.