Breeders’ Cup Photo ©
With today marking the first day of fall, and with the fall season of major Breeders’ Cup prep races just around the corner, I thought now would be a good time to take a quick look at the first foals out of the ever-popular Zenyatta and Rachel Alexandra to see where they’re at in their training!
Cozmic One: Zenyatta’s first foal has been training steadily at Saratoga and shipped to Belmont recently, where he breezed five furlongs in 1:02.52 on September 18th. The pace of his workouts has been increasing and the time between them decreasing, so it looks as though he’s very close to being entered in a race. Stay tuned!
Jess’s Dream: The first foal out of Rachel Alexandra was breathtaking while winning his debut with a terrific late rally on August 24th, but hasn’t been back on the work tab since then. Trainer Kiaran McLaughlin had mentioned that Jess’s Dream would be pointed toward an allowance race at Belmont, so assuming Jess’s Dream turns in a timed workout soon, I would expect to seen him back in the entries within the next few weeks.
Rachel’s Valentina: After bringing her record to a perfect 2-for-2 with a victory in the Spinaway Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga, Rachel’s Valentina–the second foal out of Rachel Alexandra–has been nominated to both the October 2nd Darley Alcibiades Stakes (gr. I) at Keeneland and the October 3rd Frizette Stakes (gr. I) at Belmont Park and is expected to run in one or the other. A victory in either would stamp her as one of the favorites for the prestigious Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (gr. I) on October 31st at Keeneland.
Ziconic: Zenyatta’s second foal has yet to run, and after turning in four timed workouts from July 27th through August 26th, he has disappeared from the work tab and is probably several months away from his first race. It’s interesting to note that Cozmic One–who, like Ziconic, is trained by John Shirreffs–had a similar gap in his workouts early on in his training, posting three timed workouts in September and October 2014 before going 2 1/2 months without another workout. It will be interesting to see if Ziconic’s training schedule follows a similar pattern.
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