Zenyatta News

Lakeway · Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:19 am

swale1984 wrote:
carole wrote:
Sheepish wrote:I'm still holding out hope she'll see MDO eventually.
Same here! I was thinking they may send her to someone like Malibu Moon or Curlin next. I'd also love to see her sent to Union Rags because he is throwing gorgeous babies and I think that match would be fantastic! However, the Mosses are not the sort of people to send her to an unproven stallion so I doubt they'll use any 'new' stallions.
Malibu Moon could be a possiblity, but I highly doubt she'll see Curlin. The Mosses seem to be selecting stallions that will produce slightly smaller offspring. Curlin's a big guy, and breeding Zenyatta to him wouldn't achieve what they seem to be aiming for. I'd like to see her go to Giant's Causeway eventually.

I was thinking Smart Strike as he's getting older, so ran it through TrueNicks. Once I got started I decided to check last years top stallions and here's what I came up with.
Those with an "A" include Giant's Causeway, Elusive Quality, Candy Ride (ARG) and City Zip.
Those with a "B" include Malibu Moon, Smart Strike and Tiznow (another big guy)
Those with a "D" include Tale of the Cat, Awesome Again, and Curlin (checked as he was mentioned above)
Almost bypassed MDO as he's also a big guy, but glad I didn't as it came back an "A++"...

Katewerk · Mon Apr 21, 2014 12:31 am

They should have stuck cotton in her ears. Heh.

Ioya Two · Mon Apr 21, 2014 3:59 am

She sure does look like Z but I do see the War Front in her too. What a doll. You can tell she's a filly, this one's all girl.

swale1984 · Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:22 am

Lakeway wrote: I was thinking Smart Strike as he's getting older, so ran it through TrueNicks. Once I got started I decided to check last years top stallions and here's what I came up with.
Those with an "A" include Giant's Causeway, Elusive Quality, Candy Ride (ARG) and City Zip.
Those with a "B" include Malibu Moon, Smart Strike and Tiznow (another big guy)
Those with a "D" include Tale of the Cat, Awesome Again, and Curlin (checked as he was mentioned above)
Almost bypassed MDO as he's also a big guy, but glad I didn't as it came back an "A++"...

Down the line, she needs to see Animal Kingdom. He's a complete outcross to her, and is true nicks rated at an A as well. Stamina in abundance and a pedigree that could do well on dirt or turf. What more can you ask for?

amfuller · Mon Apr 21, 2014 9:49 am

swale1984 wrote:
Lakeway wrote: I was thinking Smart Strike as he's getting older, so ran it through TrueNicks. Once I got started I decided to check last years top stallions and here's what I came up with.
Those with an "A" include Giant's Causeway, Elusive Quality, Candy Ride (ARG) and City Zip.
Those with a "B" include Malibu Moon, Smart Strike and Tiznow (another big guy)
Those with a "D" include Tale of the Cat, Awesome Again, and Curlin (checked as he was mentioned above)
Almost bypassed MDO as he's also a big guy, but glad I didn't as it came back an "A++"...
Down the line, she needs to see Animal Kingdom. He's a complete outcross to her, and is true nicks rated at an A as well. Stamina in abundance and a pedigree that could do well on dirt or turf. What more can you ask for?

OMG I would love to see a Zenyatta x Animal Kingdom foal.

mariasmon · Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:20 am

Word on the street (to be taken, as always, with a grain of salt) is that she's booked back to War Front. The Tapit colt looks good, though. I'd go back to him. But, with luck, she will have more opportunities to visit War Front and Tapit again, should they so desire.

Lakeway · Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:26 pm

mariasmon wrote:Word on the street (to be taken, as always, with a grain of salt) is that she's booked back to War Front. The Tapit colt looks good, though. I'd go back to him. But, with luck, she will have more opportunities to visit War Front and Tapit again, should they so desire.

Didn't run those who she'd already been bred to. Animal Kingdom is interesting, so ran him though and the match gets an "A". Also ran Lonhro as someone mentioned him, but it's a "C", plus isn't he also a big guy?

Starine · Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:39 pm

Would love to see her in Medaglia d'Oro's court.

I hadn't considered Candy Ride; that would be an interesting one. Can't see that happening though; same with Animal Kingdom and Lonhro.

And of course Giant's Causeway isn't getting any younger.

mariasmon · Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:42 pm

Starine wrote: And of course Giant's Causeway isn't getting any younger.

I don't know what's stopping them with him.

Lakeway · Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:42 pm

Starine wrote:Would love to see her in Medaglia d'Oro's court.

I hadn't considered Candy Ride; that would be an interesting one. Can't see that happening though; same with Animal Kingdom and Lonhro.

And of course Giant's Causeway isn't getting any younger.

Agree - I'm hoping for MDO, but personally also like Giant's Causeway, Candy Ride and Animal Kingdom...

BaroqueAgain1 · Mon Apr 21, 2014 2:50 pm

Lonhro isn't really big (tall), although he's muscular. Didn't run the nick on him...looks like he won't make the future boyfriend pool.
Could Zen be going back to War Front because they were able to book him at his present fee, getting in ahead of the coming stud fee boost?

swale1984 · Mon Apr 21, 2014 3:14 pm

Admin wrote:
swale1984 wrote:
Lakeway wrote: I was thinking Smart Strike as he's getting older, so ran it through TrueNicks. Once I got started I decided to check last years top stallions and here's what I came up with.
Those with an "A" include Giant's Causeway, Elusive Quality, Candy Ride (ARG) and City Zip.
Those with a "B" include Malibu Moon, Smart Strike and Tiznow (another big guy)
Those with a "D" include Tale of the Cat, Awesome Again, and Curlin (checked as he was mentioned above)
Almost bypassed MDO as he's also a big guy, but glad I didn't as it came back an "A++"...
Down the line, she needs to see Animal Kingdom. He's a complete outcross to her, and is true nicks rated at an A as well. Stamina in abundance and a pedigree that could do well on dirt or turf. What more can you ask for?
Proven ability to sire a top horse?

She should go back to Tapit.

Notice that I said DOWN THE LINE?!? Not this year, not next year. However, I believe a discussion I had on a different forum said that they'll send her to proven stallions until her first foals hit the track...then they could be willing to take some risks with younger sires.

mariasmon · Mon Apr 21, 2014 4:14 pm

I think once the Euro flat season has been going for a while, War Front is going to shoot right up.

mimi6920 · Mon Apr 21, 2014 5:03 pm

War Front has only had about 60 runners so far this year. Compare that with the sires at the top, such as Tapit who has had 178 runners so far, Street Cry 151 runners, MDO with 150, etc. War Front had smaller crops with less fashionable mares in the beginning. He is doing well despite that. I can't wait to see what happens when his mare quality starts to improve.

aethervox · Mon Apr 21, 2014 6:53 pm

BaroqueAgain1 wrote:I'm bemused by all the griping concerning the use of "Z" in the names of Zenyatta's foals, or all of Kitten's Joy's "Kittens."
This is not a new practice. Alluding to the sire and/or dam's name is a well-established tradition, whether in horse breeding or pedigreed dogs and cats. And Norwegians.
How many Storm Cat offspring had "Cat" or "Storm" in their names? How about all the "Indy's" and "Slew's?" Or the "Native's" and "Dancer's?" Before that, I seem to remember "War" showing up in the names of Man O'War offspring.
Just sayin.'

I remember Colonel Bradley naming all of his horses starting with a 'B' and asking that horses sired by Black Toney be named with a B - i.e. Black Gold.

Take a look at La Troienne's offspring bred by Bradley (all but her last foal): Black Helen
Biologist, Baby League, Big Hurry, Bimelech, Big Event, Businesslike, Besieged, Broke Even, Back Yard, Bee Ann Mac, Belle Histoire, Belle of Troy. Her last foal, Trojan Wars, was bred by Greentree Stables after Bradley died and his stable was dispersed.

violabella · Mon Apr 21, 2014 7:53 pm

I've been watching the comments and am itching because I know.

I will say that she is booked and it is one of the stallions mentioned. Beyond that I don't feel I can say more because I'm not sure if I'm even supposed to know. ...

sweettalk · Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:20 pm

violabella wrote:I've been watching the comments and am itching because I know. I will say that she is booked and it is one of the stallions mentioned. Beyond that I don't feel I can say more because I'm not sure if I'm even supposed to know. ...

it's really cool that you know, but "i know and you don't" posts usually don't go over well on this board. don't want anyone jumping on you for it.

i almost think she should stay open this year only because her next foal is gonna be really late. maybe be open next year?

mariasmon · Mon Apr 21, 2014 8:28 pm

sweettalk wrote:it's really cool that you know, but "i know and you don't" posts usually don't go over well on this board.

This.

Lakeway · Mon Apr 21, 2014 10:54 pm

So, I put this in another thread about breeding, and ironically used the 20th as the foaling date, so thought I'd post it here.
By my calculations, since Zenyatta foaled on the 20th, and all keeps going well, she'd probably be ready to be bred about May 20th (usually around 30 days). If she catches, then her expected due date would be April 27, 2015 (using 342 days). If that were the case, I'd be surprised if they didn't breed her...
ETA: For any breeders, please let me know if I've made any errors...

sweettalk · Mon Apr 21, 2014 11:22 pm

if the idea is to get as close to jan 1 as possible, i'm just wondering when they'd stop and "reset her clock". i'm not a breeder, i've never bred anything let alone a race horse, so any input regarding when it's starting to get too late would be well received on my end.