Regal Zenyatta

In her only appearance at Churchill Downs, Zenyatta stands tall and proud with exercise rider Steve Willard on the reins outside Barn 41. With the blue leg wraps of the John Shirreffs stable visible in the background, Zenyatta is adorned in her champion Breeders’ Cup blanket. The lavender skies provide a defining accent to the work, a melancholy foreshadowing of her only defeat, despite a hard-charging finish that would come two days later in the 2010 Classic. The emotional headline the following morning in the Louisville Courier-Journal read simply, “Blame The Winner.” For all of her heartbroken fans, it was a race she ran like the true champion she is and always will be.