serafaery

Okay I'm being a total dork, but this horse is so compelling.

I already linked the NPR interview with the Seabiscuit author Laura Hillenbrand, describing Zenyatta, the current winningest race horse, with 17 straight wins, and the first mare to win the Breeder's Cup.

She has a very distinctive racing style, just like Seabiscuit's. She waits at the back, like really far back, so far back you don't think there's any way she can make up the ground. And then at the last second she blows past everyone. It's as if she's making fun of the other horses.

The video of her dancing is really cute.

There's a nifty montage of her first 14 straight wins, 2007-2009, here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zi0YaVefoeE&feature=related

Here's her 2010 Santa Anita run:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0SwxIi11aI&feature=related

The Apple Blossom Handicap, April 2010:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1I9_Tx9t7z0&feature=related

Her last race was the Vanity Handicap in June, and it is spectacular:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-fJpTGaPH8

Laura Hillenbrand says that the explosion of cheers from people when Zenyatta canters back past the grand stand "just doesn't happen". "There is a rapture gathering around this horse", she says. She's a phenomenon, and so beautiful!

And she drinks Guiness, hehe!