Adare Manor marches home victorious in the Zenyatta (Ernie Belmonte/Past The Wire)
Mike Willman/Santa Anita Press Box
ARCADIA, Calif.— Adare Manor, in search of her fifth consecutive win and fourth graded stakes score, was dispatched as the prohibitive 1-9 favorite in Sunday’s Grade II, $200,000 Zenyatta Stakes and she certainly ran to the betting, coasting to a facile 5 ¼ length score under Juan Hernandez. Trained by Bob Baffert, Adare Manor got a mile and one-sixteenth eased up at the wire in 1:43.70 and she’ll now be pointed to the Grade I Breeders’ Cup Distaff Nov. 4 here at Santa Anita.
Named in honor of North America’s 2010 Horse of the Year, the Zenyatta is a key prep to the Breeders’ Cup Distaff and is part of the Breeders’ Cup “Dirt Dozen.”
Breaking sharply and in firm control throughout, Adare Manor had a 2 ½ length lead on Desert Dawn leaving the quarter pole, whereupon Hernandez took a peek back to his left and from there, the 4-year-old daughter of Uncle Mo widened while well within herself.
A winner of a pair of Grade II stakes here this past spring, the Santa Maria and the Santa Margarita, Adare Manor was most recently a one-length winner of the Grade I Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar going today’s distance on Aug. 5.
With no show wagering, she paid $2.20 and $2.10.
Owned by Michael Lund Petersen, Adare Manor, who is out of the Giant Gizmo mare Brooklynsway, picked up $120,000 for her efforts today increasing her earning to $981,600 from an overall race record of 13-7-4-0.
Consistent Arizona-bred Desert Dawn, trained by Phil D’Amato, was clearly second best on the day, finishing 6 ¼ lengths in front of Micro Share.
Off at 5-1 with Umberto Rispoli, she paid $2.40 to show.
Fractions on the Zenyatta were 23.71, 47.91, 1:11.96 and 1:37.04.
GRADE II, $200,000 ZENYATTA STAKES
JOCKEY QUOTES
JUAN HERNANDEZ, ADARE MANOR, WINNER:
“Today all the credit goes to my filly, to Bob (Baffert) and his team they brought her ready. She broke a little slow the last couple of times, but today she broke on her own, I didn’t even have to push her. She was just galloping around on the lead and I didn’t do much today.”
TRAINER QUOTES
BOB BAFFERT, ADARE MANOR, WINNER:
“She had been training really well. Morgan who gets on her in the morning said she couldn’t get any better. She just keeps improving and we wanted to see something like this to see if we were going to take a crack at the Breeders’ Cup. So I think if she comes out of it well we will go for it.”
NOTES: The winning owner is Michael Lund Petersen.
