Breaking News! Zenyatta Takes the G1 Lady's Secret, Again!

Okay, so today, Zenyatta danced past her competition to win her 13th-race in 13 starts and taking the Grade 1 Lady's Secret for a second time! She won the 2008 Eclipse Award for Champion older female and she truly deserved that award, oh boy! She's earned $2,774,580 racing dollars in her 5 short years, and she's been only a West Coast kind of gal! She was born on April 1, 2004! Her owners, the Moss family, are trying to decide whether she should go into the G1 Breeders Cup Ladies Classic or the G1 Breeders Cup Classic.

This year, chatter demanded a match race between Miss Thing, the beautiful Zenyatta, and the Kentucky Oaks and Preakness winning Rachel Alexandra. But yesterday, Jess Jackson, Rachel's dad said that she was taking the rest of the year off and going to Churchill Downs for a rest. She had won all 8 of her '09 races and needed a rest because she had been a busy baby, at 3!

So, we won't be able to see these two big-time girls face-off this year, but maybe down the road!

In other news, last night I took a long 3 hour nap, then dined at B-dubs and read the paper, and then slept for something like 12 hours more. Then I went to the stable and spent a leisurely day hand-grazing my herd, Parelliing with Hailee, goofing off with Renny, and riding the wonderful wonderful Violet. I really enjoyed so much the hand-grazing. The sun was beautiful, sky sharp bright blue, big white puffed clouds and yellowing rustling corn. My horses' coats looked so rich and glossy and bright! I am a lucky woman.

Breaking News! Heading Down the Homestretch

The longest-running racetrack in California, Bay Meadows, will close on May 11th after its last 70 day meet. It was founded in1934, so has had a 74 year run! It's an historically significant track for many, many reasons. It's innovative founder, William P. Kyne, introduced the ideas of pari-mutuel betting and the Daily Double, and implemented the technologies of the all-enclosed starter gate, the totalizer board, and the photo-finish camera, all Bay Meadows firsts!

Famous horses ran here, including Majestic Prince and Native Diver who broke their maidens at Bay Meadows. Determine and Charismatic used Bay Meadows as preps for theier Kentucky Derby wins. And other regular famous horses included Seabiscuit, Citation, Round Table, John Henry, Noor, Coal Town, Cigar, Lost in the Fog, and Secretariat's best girl, Lady's Secret! Famous jockeys included Bill Shoemaker, Laffit Pincay, Jr. and, of course, Russell Baze who just won his 10,000th race there!

A sad thing about it's history is that the groundwater contains poisonous environmental hazards, including petrochemical hydrocarbons, benzene, toluene, and pesticides.

I hope Californians enjoy their last meet at this famous track. And I hope they open another in the area which they have discussed and planned.

Kentucky 2007: The Claiborne Breeding Shed!

Okay, so here it is! The Breeding Shed at Claiborne Farms -- our piece of American equine history! The motto of the good people who manage this place is "take care of the horses." And they care about being "practical and solid rather than fancy and showy." A.B. Hancock was from a pillar of equine society in Virginia, but he married into the Kentucky Clay family and began Claiborne Farms, the 2,764 acre facility that shapes our thoroughbred industry.

I will never be able to tell you how important this little black box of a place is! But here's some small statistics to give you an idea. Six of our 11 Triple Crown winners were conceived in this shed! Secretariat was a twinkle in his dad's eye in this shed. The following stallions served in this shed: Nasrullah, Princequillo, Abiorix, Double Jay, Round Table, Bold Ruler, Buckpasser, Forli, Herbager, Hoist the Flag, Secretariat, Nijinsky II, Danzig, and Mr. Prospector! I can't believe that I was standing in the room where Secretariat was made and where he later made Lady's Secret!

What confused me about the facility when we first arrived is that it was just so plain. I kept waiting for the tour guide to say, this is just the holding area, now we'll show you the deluxe shed we have. And the reason I felt that way was because Tom had taken us to a breeding at Hill 'n Dale farm and that place was just swank. The breeding shed was gorgeaus and they had this huge elegant viewing room above the breeding shed. Plus they had this really large area for the veterinarian and other staff and a large room for the washing of the mares and stallion. But Claiborne just has this shed and they use simple paper buckets to wash the horses.

And that's because of their generations of tradition. The shed is a private activity where superstars are conceived. I can hardly believe the great outcomes from such humble beginnings!

Lady's Secret -- Secretariat's Baby!

Lady's Secret was Secretariat's daughter and most successful progeny. She was so successful that it's hard to know where to begin! Her record was 45: 25-9-3 with total earnings of $3,021,328. She was trained by D. Wayne Lukas. She was voted #76 on the Blood Horse Top 100 race horses of the 20th century list. In 1986, as an older mare, she defeated the best male horses in our nation four times! She won 10 of her 15 starts in her fourth year, and every single one was a Graded Stakes race! Eight of those 10 wins were in Grade 1 Stakes Races!! No other horse in history has won that many Graded Stakes races in a single season. She was the first filly to win the Whitney Stakes since Gallorette. So, no wonder that she won the Eclipse Outstanding Older Female Horse Award and the very privileged, rarely won by fillies, Eclipse Horse of the Year Award! She is the all-time highest female money-earner. She was inducted in the Hall of Fame the year I earned my Ph.D., 1992!!! How cool is that! Her nickname was "Iron Lady" and she was ridden frequently by Pat Day. But another of her riders, Chris McCarron said of her, "Lady's Secret was awesome! She brought a very tough attitude with her into every race!" The Lady's Secret Cafe at Monmouth Park in New Jersey and the Lady's Secret Breeder's Cup Handicap at Santa Anita honor her! On All Saint's Day in 1986, she won the Breeder's Cup Distaff, sealing her fate as an Eclipse Winner. In one of the links below, you can see that race! It's fabulous! She ran like her daddy. She was out front right at the start, relaxed, calm, smooth, running her own private race. She stays out front the entire time, mostly at 5 1/2 lengths. They try to close on her, but as the announcer says, she "puts it in another gear." As she sails effortlessly over the finish line, way, way in front, the announcer goes nuts and says, "[she is] a brilliant champion! Another flawless performance!" She retired to become a mother and bore 11 kids. She died due to complications of childbirth on March 4, 2003, the same week that Violet was born. Her last foal is named Cool Valley Cowboy! You can read more about this amazing filly at the following links:

http://www.tmeter.com/horses/ladyssecret.html
or
http://www.racingmuseum.org/hall/horse.asp?ID=99
or
http://www.thoroughbredchampions.com/biographies/ladyssecret.htm
or
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady