zenyatta the queen

it's no secret that i have a love affair with horses, and when i heard that one of the greatest race horses of all time would be making a final at appearance at her home track - a local track - before heading off to kentucky to become a breeding mare, i did the only thing i could do. i called vicki.

in front of the scoreboard...and the crowds

vicki's friend tim, if you recall, was the one who gave us the inside track (no pun intended, though quite appropriate) at opening day at the del mar racetrack in july (the site of the fateful knee injury), and he also happens to work the starting gate at hollywood park.  vicki had already mentioned he'd been trying to get her up to the track, and i'd told her we should go sometime before the year's end.  that was week's ago, so when i heard that hp would be holding 'zenyatta appreciation day' i knew it was the perfect opportunity.

and they're off!

i wanted to see that horse in a bad way. when they are still talking about her twenty years from now, i wanted to be able to say that i had seen her and that she really was that magnificent.

we arrived just before the first post. tim met us and escorted us to the backside of the track, where we watched the starts for the first three races.  what is so great about visiting the track under these circumstances, is that it's an experience a 'regular' ticket holder would never have.  for example, we literally walked through the staff kitchen (where all the staff, jockeys, etc. eat during the race day) to watch those first couple of races, and our spot was shared only by track staff.  it's pretty cool.

vicki and i on the backside

after the fourth race, tim took us across the track (it sill makes me giggle a little to be walking ACROSS the track) to the grandstand area, and we found a great spot just above the winners circle to hang out and watch the next couple of races until they brought zenyatta out.  ironically, though i wasn't betting, every horse i picked was a winner.  of course, if i HAD bet, there would have been different winners, 'cause that's just how my luck works:)

following the sixth race, zenyatta was brought out of the barn and into the paddock before being led to the track, and the winners circle, and you know what?  she really WAS that magnificent.

zenyatta is like the michael phelps of horse racing (without the drugs).  she has done things that a horse just shouldn't be able to do, and things that no other mare before her has ever done.  and she has created an excitement about racing that hasn't existed in a very long time.  racing is a dying sport and race tracks all across the country are struggling, but this is a horse that people who had never watched a horse race in their life were setting their dvr's and chanting 'horse of the year' to anybody who would listen.

i'll be honest in saying that i have mixed feelings about the sport.  on one hand, there is just something about watching the athleticism and beauty of a group of horses running, that just awes me.  on the other, i know there are unethical and even cruel things that happen in the sport.

the beauty of the sport

maybe because i know that (thought i try not to think about it), one of the more moving moments of the day for me, was when one of the other gate crew made an off-handed comment about how zenyatta  had ended up with exactly the right people.

our host

when i probed further, he told me how much those owners, and that trainer, and the hot walker, and the groom, and the other close staff were such careful and loving caretakers.  it was obvious that this is not always the case, and i can't help but think that it has been a factor in zenyatta's fantastic career.