Star filly Zenyatta sets Kentucky pulses racing

Churchill Downs, Kentucky: There are two things on peoples' minds ahead of this year's Breeders' Cup meeting, which climaxes — no one is contemplating an anticlimax — with Zenyatta's quest for a perfect 20 wins from 20 starts in the $5 million (Dh18.3 million) Classic.

If you are American it is the goose-steeping Californian mare, and if you are European, or, more particularly, Workforce's trainer Sir Michael Stoute, it is the rattling firm going on the turf course.

The Zenyatta show rolled out of the airport and into Churchill Downs. As befitting her film-star celebrity status, she does not wear dark glasses but does have cotton wool in her ears, and America's over-the-top way of doing things, her lorry was accorded a police escort for the two-mile journey.

Paparazzi

The racing channels out here only just stopped short of following this motorcade with a helicopter, sufficing instead with the cheaper option of sticking the camera out of the passenger-side window of a pursuing car which was failing to keep on Zenyatta's tail.

This somewhat obscured the thrilling back view of the moving lorry six cars ahead and made one pine for the long-distance helicopter shot which is synonymous with major news events here.

The presence of "herself" means security in the back-stretch area has been intensified with more strategically parked sheriffs' cars, from Jefferson County, than you would get in a whole series of Dukes of Hazzard.

For two hours on Wednesday before her first appearance under the iconic twin spires of Churchill Downs, a large mixed crowd of media and fans gathered outside her barn like twitchers waiting for a rare bird to emerge from a bush from whence they would follow its every flutter from shrub to shrub.

Among those watching Zenyatta acquaint herself with the track and perform her trademark dressage voluntary was her jockey, Mike Smith, who had joked that his journey with the sheriffs from the airport had been his first ride in a police car not wearing handcuffs. "I've been blessed with some great horses in my career," he confided "but nothing like this. It's been indescribable. She's just different."

"I can explain it until I run out of words but until you see it yourself you won't understand. I've ridden some big horses in my time but none as light on their feet or agile as her. It may not look fast with that enormous stride but when you feel that power, it's crazy."

Longest winning margins

Pointing to her dance as she came off the track, he added: "That's her party piece. From the moment she leaves the barn until she's back it's all show. She's only run twice on dirt but they were her longest winning margins. The way she looks she should run incredible."

There then followed a moment of mild irony. When she departed for the sanctuary of her barn like the Pied Piper, sucking several hundred spectators with her, no one was left trackside.

Consequently when, a few moments later, Workforce, an equally rare bird, being the first Derby-Arc winner to grace this meeting, stepped on to the track, there was not a soul to greet him.

If he fails to perform tomorrow it will be for one of either two reasons; an inferiority complex or because Stoute takes him out of the race on account of the fast ground.

Latest odds: Breeders' Cup Classic:

Zenyatta (5/2) , Blame (6) , Lookin at Lucky (6) , Quality Road (8) , Haynesfield (11) , Fly Down (16) , Paddy OPrado (16) , Espoir City (25) , Etched (25) , Musket Man (25) , First Dude (33) , Pleasant Prince (66)