Zenyatta takes home Horse of the Year

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 17) — This time, Zenyatta would not be denied.

The runner-up for Horse of the Year each of the past two seasons, the most popular racehorse in North America took home the hardware Monday night at the Eclipse Awards when she turned the tables on Blame, the only thoroughbred to finish in front of Zenyatta during her 20-race career.

Zenyatta finished second in the voting to Curlin in 2008 and then again to Rachel Alexandra in 2009 despite maintaining an unblemished racing resume through both seasons with her uncanny ability to come from behind and always cross the finish line first.

In November, 11 months after owners Jerry and Ann Moss squelched a brief flirtation with her retirement and returned her to racing as a 6-year-old, Zenyatta stood on the cusp of closing out an unprecedented career a perfect 20-0 before her signature closing kick fell just a head short to Blame in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs.

Yet as impressive as Blame’s 2010 campaign may have been, including his winning two other Grade 1s, Zenyatta’s similar success at the highest levels of racing and her penchant for capturing the imagination of those in the industry and general public alike elevated her profile to another realm, thus overshadowing a narrow defeat in her career finale in the eyes of voters.

On Monday night, when the votes were announced at a reception held in Miami Beach, Fla., to honor horse racing’s version of the Oscars, Zenyatta received 128 votes, to Blame’s 102. European invader Goldikova, who has won the past three runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, but predominantly runs during the year overseas, tallied 5 votes. One voter abstained. Two did not vote.

“This makes it all OK after getting beat last time,” said Mike Smith, Zenyatta’s regular jockey.

During the second half of the year, each step of Zenyatta’s quest for immortality and continued pursuit of perfection ­— as she notched each of her five victories in 2010 against Grade 1 competition and neared the modern-day record of 19-for-19 that she held prior to the Breeders’ Cup Classic — were met with mounting interest as she finally crossed over and garnered mainstream attention through the likes of Oprah Winfrey, 60 Minutes and Sports Illustrated. Zenyatta also finished second to Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn for Female Athlete of the Year in voting conducted by The Associated Press.

Since her defeat in November, the Mosses held farewell retirement parties for Zenyatta, first at her home track at Hollywood Park in Inglewood, Calif., and then at Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Ky. She now resides at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky and is awaiting a breeding date with a would-be suitor stallion.

“She’s doing extremely well at Land’s End,” Jerry Moss told the crowd. “Hey, you can look it up every day on Zenyatta.com.”

But it was on the track where Zenyatta endeared herself to an adoring and ever-growing legion of fans through her charisma and personality. She often was seen strutting around the paddock before her races in a dance-like fashion and was keen to play to her audience, posing for photographs as if knowing the crowd was there for her.

And mostly it was. Zenyatta became the face of thoroughbred racing and a good-will ambassador for the Sport of Kings.

Purchased by the Mosses as a yearling for $60,000, the gangly bay mare would grow into the role as one of the best racehorses of the modern era.

A late arrival to the track, partly because she was a bit of a late bloomer and partly because trainer John Shirreffs insisted on giving her time to develop properly, Zenyatta unleashed undefeated campaigns in both 2008 and 2009, yielding back-to-back Eclipse Awards as champion older mare.

But her connections’ insistence on running Zenyatta almost exclusively on the West Coast — where synthetic racetracks reign supreme — and apart from the fields of horses that many regarded as the best around cost her style points when the time came for choosing the highest of year-round honors.

In 2009, Zenyatta broke with her gender barrier and challenged males for the first time in her career in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, becoming the first female to win the richest race in North America in its 25-year existence. However, that year at the ballot box she ran head first into another female who had dispatched with male competition, but had never faced Zenyatta, and it was Rachel Alexandra who garnered the votes necessary to collect racing’s coveted title despite skipping the Classic.

This year, it was Zenyatta’s turn, despite the continued impressive level of her competition.

Blame won the Stephen Foster in June at Churchill Downs, and the Whitney in August at Saratoga. He finished second in the Jockey Club Gold Cup at Belmont in October before being shipped off for stud duty following his victory in the Classic on Nov. 6.

“It just fell that way,” said Al Stall Jr., Blame’s trainer. “Nobody is surprised. She was the overwhelming favorite. She had transcendent powers we didn’t have.”

Nevertheless, Zenyatta’s accomplishments in 2010 were profound also, as she won five Grade 1s, including the Apple Blossom Handicap at Oaklawn Park in Arkansas. Outside of there and Churchill Downs for the Breeders’ Cup, Zenyatta ran entirely in California, including winning the Vanity, Clement Hirsch and Lady’s Secret each for the third consecutive year.

Through it all, Zenyatta retired as the richest race mare in history with more than $7.3 million in earnings

“We always hoped,” Ann Moss said. “We hoped last year, and the year before that. We’re just so happy. She’s such a gift.”

The Eclipse Awards are voted on by the National Thorougbhred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters.

— Other winners included Todd Pletcher as outstanding trainer, Ramon Dominguez as outstanding jockey, WinStar Farm as outstanding owner and Adena Springs as outstanding breeder.

Pletcher finished far ahead of the runner-up, Zenyatta trainer John Shirreffs, 168 votes to 28. Dominguez finished ahead of runner-up Garrett Gomez, 124-60. WinStar Farm edged Jerry and Ann Moss 100-81.

— Blame was chosen top older male and Zenyatta top older female. Other winners:

— 2-Year-Old Male: Uncle Mo

— 2-Year-Old Filly: Awesome Feather

— 3-Year-Old Male: Lookin At Lucky

— 3-Year-Old Filly: Blind Luck

— Female Sprinter: Dubai Majesty

— Male Sprinter: Big Drama

— Male Turf Horse: Gio Ponti

— Female Turf Horse: Goldikova

— Steeplechase Horse: Slip Away

— Apprentice Jockey: Omar Moreno

Chris Grove begins Maryland training title defense

BOWIE, Md. (Jan. 5) — For Chris Grove, the ascension through the ranks hasn’t come without its share of setbacks. The cyclical ups and downs of horse racing affect every trainer.

But as the calendar year starts anew, the 41-year-old Frederick native and lifelong resident finds himself in the unprecedented role of standing atop the heap looking down on all comers, a big bulls-eye cast on his back.

On Saturday, Grove opened the 2011 thoroughbred racing season at Laurel Park as the reigning statewide conditioning champion after winning the year-round Maryland training title for the first time in his career in 2010. A third-straight year of personal bests behind him, including 95 total wins and more than $2.1 million in purse earnings, Grove will set his sights for the upcoming year on maintaining that upward trend.

Last winter, he saddled winners in both of the coveted graded stakes races offered as the centerpieces to the Laurel Park winter meet, en route to winning the 15-week-long stand, which served as the first individual meet championship of his tenure. Grove followed that up with similar success by claiming victory at the summer meet, led by a career-best effort Aug. 14 when he took down four races on the card at Laurel Park and two more that same night at Charles Town.

But the year also saw struggles as periodic cold streaks surfaced, most notably a downturn in winner’s circle appearances during the fall meet, along with the prolonged absence of the barn’s two best performers, who were both laid up with year-ending injuries not long after Sweet Goodbye and Greenspring won their respective graded stakes outings in February.

However, Grove ended the year with productive closing kick in the final weeks and earned 57 total victories in 2011 at the major Maryland racetracks — Laurel Park and Pimlico — which was four better than Scott Lake, who had won the title the previous five years and just recently became only the sixth trainer in North America to reach 5,000 career wins.

“I’ve never really put a lot of emphasis on winning training titles and meet titles before,” Grove said. “I would always just focus on the individual races and let that other stuff fall where it may.

“It has to be acknowledged that Lake rerouted most of his horses to Pennsylvania later in the year and he just didn’t have the numbers running in Maryland. That being said, someone had to win it and I’m glad it was us. We were there to pick up the pieces and that feels good.”

Grove, the son of former jockey turned racing official Phil Grove, plans to maintain a significant presence in Maryland for the upcoming year, though he also harbors intentions of further expanding into neighboring states, including Pennsylvania, through the interests of new ownership clientele.

For years, he has stabled the majority of his nearly 60-horse barn at the Bowie Training Center not far from Laurel Park, and, at least for the coming year, will continue to call the facility home for day-to-day operations.

Of course, the long-term prospects for horse racing in Maryland remain precarious. Tracks statewide were on the brink of shutting down today, and the Bowie Training Center set to shutter its doors, after track ownership and horsemen had failed for weeks late last year to agree to terms on a racing schedule for 2011.

The tracks, who are losing millions each year in operating expenses, wanted to run fewer dates to limit their financial liabilities. Horsemen countered that anything less than a full schedule of 146 days of live racing, the same number run in 2010, would represent the death-knell of the industry and place its 15,000 associated jobs in jeopardy.

On Dec. 22, at a meeting called by Gov. Martin O’Malley, the parties brokered a deal that includes concessions by all. Under the plan, the Maryland Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association will contribute $1.7 million to those track operations and the state will subsidize the plan with $3.5 million to $4 million of slot machine proceeds originally intended for capital improvements at the tracks. The agreement is meant to allow the Maryland Jockey Club, which owns Laurel Park and Pimlico, to break even on its operations, which historically lose millions of dollars annually. The deal assures 146 days of live racing in 2011, but offers no guarantees for the future.

“It was a lot of posturing for a huge Band-Aid,” Grove said. “We’ve got one year to fix this. We can’t go through this again. It isn’t fair to the horsemen. It isn’t fair to the public. It’s not fair to the racetrack owners, either. So it has to be fixed. What the fix is, I don’t know.”

So as all parties invested in negotiating a deal for a permanent fix for Maryland racing have been given, in the least, a temporary reprieve, horsemen, such as Grove, can go about addressing their immediate concern: Winning races.

Grove said Friday he has a few younger horses he is high on, while his stalwarts are on the cusp of coming back and augmenting his stable.

Sweet Goodbye, who won the Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie in a four-horse photo finish last winter, is nearing her return to the track after being sidelined for much of 2010 with a bone chip that required surgery. The 6-year-old daughter of 1996 Preakness winner Louis Quatorze has begun regularly scheduled workouts and is likely to debut later this month in the What A Summer Stakes, a race she won last January. Grove hopes to saddle her to the winner’s circle in defense of her Barbara Fritchie title.

On the other hand, Greenspring, who blistered the field in track record time in the Grade 2 General George on that same race card last February, remains on the farm in South Carolina and figures to return to Maryland later this year. Greenspring had a screw placed in his shin following an injury sustained during his victory in the General George. He briefly returned to the barn last summer before re-injuring himself after kicking his stall. He’s been undergoing treatments since and Grove hopes to welcome his return in the not too distant future.

“My dad always told me, ‘don’t get too high, don’t get too low,’” Grove said. “Stay even keel. Because if one or the other gets the best of you, you’re not going to have that longevity.”

The 49-day winter meet begins today at Laurel Park. The meet will feature 15 stakes races, including the Barbara Fritchie on Feb. 19 and the General George on Feb 21. The racing will take place four days a week, on a Wednesday through Saturday schedule, through March 26.