For a while it looked like Zenyatta, the talented 4-year-old daughter of Street Cry, might be headed towards her first career defeat in the Grade 1 Vanity Handicap at Hollywood Park on Saturday. She was able to rally from far behind to reach the wire 1/2 length in front of the game Tough Tiz’s SIs, despite not appearing to be on her A-game.
Longshot Silver Z broke well and did her best effort to wire the field, opening up a 10-15 length lead over the rest of the field in the early going while cruising to fractions of 23.59 and 46.16. Zenyatta blew past the longshot pace setter as the field turned into the stretch, but then had to hold off desperate charge from Tough Tiz’s Sis to prevail.
It sure looked like the Zenyatta we’ve known as she was closing on Silver Z towards the top of the stretch, but it looked like she lost interest in the race towards the end in the stretch. Regardless, it was enough to prevail and keep her perfect record intact of 6 for 6 lifetime. Zenyatta covered the 1 1/8 miles of the Vanity in 1:49.51 to return $2.60 for the win.
There’s a special affinity I have for Zenyatta as I gave her out as a winner in the very first handicapping picks I ever did on this blog last November. I think it’s safe to say that she’s my favorite fillly in the U.S. at the moment. Things were a bit dicey there as a fan in the early going of the Vanity, but I was glad to see her pull through and remain perfect.
No word yet on where Zenyatta might be pointing next, but all indications are that Del Mar would seem to be the next stop.
[...] hold off Zenyatta in the stretch. This one might be a battle for the ages. Zenyatta had to dig down deep to pull off the win last time, and there’s really no way of knowing for sure whether she’ll come back better or worse [...]