The winner of the Lady's Secret, which has six fillies and mares entered, is guaranteed a place in the $2 million Breeders' Cup Ladies' Classic at Churchill Downs on Friday, November 5.
Zenyatta, owned by Jerry and Ann Moss, comes into the race with a perfect mark of 18 wins in as many career starts. For this year's Lady's Secret she will start from post five with her regular jockey Mike Smith.
"She is very aggressive," Smith said on Tuesday. "Right now she is training probably as well, if not better, than last year going into the Classic. I know all of our races she has come out of them in great shape and she seems to be moving forward and that is all you can ask going into the Breeders' Cup."
Trained by John Shirreffs, the two-time Eclipse Award winner recorded her 18th consecutive victory on Saturday, August 7 in the Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar.
"Just before Del Mar, she was a little lackadaisical, she just kind of went through the motions," Smith noted. "And now I mean she is on, she is hitting three-quarters in :13 every time as easy as a horse could do."
Also this year she won the Santa Margarita, Apple Blossom and Vanity Handicaps and has career earnings of $6,254,580. Last year Zenyatta became the first female to win the $5 million Breeders' Cup Classic.
"To be on such a creature that is so big and yet so balanced and so agile for that size, it's mind boggling," Smith said about riding Zenyatta, "it just blows your mind away. I mean she literally moves like a gazelle. I've been on some extremely talented horses. I have been very, very blessed in my career. But she just stands above."
Here is the full field for the Lady's Secret in post position order: Switch, Alonso Quinonez; Moon de French, Joe Talamo; Rinterval, Rafael Bejarano; Satans Quick Chick, Junior Alvarado; Zenyatta, Mike Smith and Emmy Darling, Pat Valenzuela.
Three-year-old Switch will carry 120 pounds, all others will carry 123 pounds.
The 1 1/16-mile race has a post-time of 7:15 p.m.(et) and will televised on ESPN.
