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Year's best take to the track on Saturday

Fri 6th, August 2010

Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) - Undefeated champion mare Zenyatta and leading older male horse Quality Road, the two top-rated thoroughbreds in training, are each slated to race Saturday afternoon, though separated by about 3,000 miles.

Zenyatta will go after a third straight Clement L. Hirsch Stakes victory at Del Mar, while Quality Road is the odds-on favorite for the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga.

Quality Road will be the first to leave the starting gate. The four-year-old colt, trained by Todd Pletcher, has five challengers to contend with in the 1 1/8-mile Whitney.

Owned by Edward Evans, Quality Road has returned to racing in 2010 after a disastrous Breeders' Cup Classic. The colt did not get a chance to run in the Classic because of his refusal to be loaded into the starting gate.

"Unfortunately he gets a little bit of a bad rap from, you know, the one isolated incident at the Breeders' Cup when, you know, part of it was his fault and part of it was the way he was handled," Pletcher said this week.

"But since then," Pletcher continued, "he's been absolutely perfect in every situation."

Quality Road came back this year an even better horse than he was at three, the year he won the Florida Derby. With John Velazquez riding, he has moved to the head of the class in the handicap division with three straight wins in 2010.

"We've been very fortunate so far that everything has gone according to plan," Pletcher noted. "We've gotten the first three races and those have gone very well. We're coming up to the next step which, you know, by watching him train he seems to be in as good a form as ever, even better so, you know, everything's gone the way we want it to go. And, you know, there's still some more left to do and each race is very, very important."

Quality Road has picked up victories this year in the Hal's Hope, Donn Handicap and Met Mile. Saturday's Whitney start will be the first of his races that, hopefully, will get him to the Breeders' Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November.

"In this particular year, we've kind of laid out a schedule at the beginning of the year," Pletcher said. "Talking to Mr. Evans and Chris Baker as Farm Manager and Racing Manager that, you know, this is kind of what we had in mind was to open with the Donn and then, you know, a break in the Met Mile and then, you know, probably another break in the Whitney and hopefully the Woodward and then the Breeders' Cup."

The Woodward, which was won by Rachel Alexandra last year, will be held at Saratoga on the first Saturday in September.

"If the Whitney goes according to plan and he comes out of it well and we feel like he's ready to run back in the Woodward," Pletcher commented, "we would like to run back in the Woodward.

A little more than three hours after Quality Road goes in the Whitney, Zenyatta will break from the gate in the Clement L. Hirsch. This will be her fourth start of the year.

The late-running champion is coming off a second straight win in the Vanity Handicap and now goes for a third straight triumph in the Hirsch.

To owner Jerry Moss, Zenyatta is more than a racehorse.

"She is perfection in a very important way," Moss said. "She didn't just happen to show up in the barn and then all of a sudden start winning all these races all in a row; it took a tremendous effort by a great group of people headed by (trainer) John Shirreffs. There are 14 different people that touch her every day. It is quite amazing. And they're all just great to her and they all deserve a large part of this."

Zenyatta is ridden by Mike Smith who is another promoter for the champion.

"She's extremely intelligent," Smith noted. "If you've ever gotten the opportunity to be around her, she's just amazing. I mean she's so, so intelligent. I mean from - she knows when there's a time when you can walk up to the stall and she can be the most loving thing in the world. She'll let you pet on her."

This year the six-year-old has been showing a lot of showmanship, winning races by the smallest of margins. In the Vanity, the undefeated superster appeared to be running out of room to gain the victory, but she closed late receiving credit for a half-length win over St Trinians even though it looked a lot closer.

Saturday's Hirsch offers the mare a chance to win her 18th consecutive race without a defeat. Her rivals are less than stellar, but Zenyatta still has to run and cross the wire first.