Is Zenyatta The Best Racehorse Ever?

Next Saturday, she could become the first great American athlete to retire undefeated in more than half a century, since Rocky Marciano stepped down from the ring. Her name is Zenyatta, she's six years old and she is a thoroughbred. She has run in 19 races, and she has won 19 races. And now she's going for number 20 at what many believe is the most prestigious competition of the year: the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Some of the best horses from around the world will be running at Churchill Downs and they're all males, except for Zenyatta. At the age of six, she will also be the oldest horse in the race. The stakes are extremely high, and not just in millions of dollars.

Zenyatta is so adored by horse lovers that if she doesn't beat the boys and win one last time, hearts will be broken everywhere. It would be Babe Ruth striking out in his last at-bat.

She is quite simply the most splendid creature we'd ever seen. She's big for a mare, taller than most of the boys in the stable, and very calm. Thoroughbreds are supposed to be high strung and hot blooded, but there's something Zen about Zenyatta. She loves kids and welcomes strangers, particularly when they come bearing gifts.

When she hits the track though, there is a personality change you can barely believe. She becomes obsessed, it seems, with showing the boys that she is faster and tougher than any one of them. She drives people into fits of frenzy.

This was how the announcer captured it at last year's Breeders' Cup: "Zenyatta has come to the outside. Zenyatta coming flying on the grandstand side. Gio Ponti on the inside. Summer Bird is right there. This is un-be-lieve-able! Zenyatta!"

Her Hall of Fame jockey, Mike Smith, has won all the races in the Triple Crown, and nearly 5,000 more.

"How does Zenyatta compare to the other horses you've been on who won these championship races?" correspondent Bob Simon asked.

"She means more to me than all those," Smith said.

Asked if he can explain why, Smith said, "She's just who she is. She's Zenyatta. She's incredible. She's unbeaten. She's done everything that we've ever asked of her."

When asked if history will be made next week at the Breeders' Cup, Smith told Simon, "She's ready. I'll be ready. And she's ready. And like I said before, given the opportunity, I think we could see somethin' incredible."

Zenyatta lives in Hollywood, and at more than 1,200 pounds, she's the biggest star in town. The camera loves her and she loves the camera. Before every race, she poses and struts and does a little dance.

But once on the track, she's a Ferrari racing against a pack of Volvos.

Track announcer Vic Stauffer has called Zenyatta's races from the very start, which is when she was just another horse. "And the bad start has Zenyatta at the back of the pack," Stauffer said during the second race.

That's where Zenyatta has always started - in the back, lingering languidly as if she's on a Sunday outing. But then she turns up the juice and slams into high gear.

Vic Stauffer realized early on that this was one fast girl with a hell of a future. "And that's when you knew you were really lookin' at somethin' very special," he told Simon.

"She always comes from behind. You ever go a little bit crazy when she's way behind?" Simon asked.

"Again, yeah, because I've become a fan and I've rooted for her. But, that's just all part of the theater of her. She passes them all and I have a feeling that if there were ten more in front of her, she'd just pass them," Stauffer replied.

Jockey Mike Smith told Simon, "I think that's what keeps her sound and keeps her happy is that she only does what she has to do."

"So you might not have been on her at her fastest yet?" Simon asked.

"I truly don't believe I have. I've always, in every race that I've ridden her in, I've always felt that there was another gear if I needed it," Smith said.

"Maybe Saturday?" Simon asked.

"I think we're gonna see somethin' really special," Smith replied.

But her beginnings did not seem special at all. The only thing remarkable about her was her price: she was bought at an auction when she was one year old for only $60,000.

John Shirreffs has been her trainer ever since. "We were just really blessed and fortunate," he told Simon.

Asked how they got her so cheap, Shirreffs said, "Well, I think because she had skin disease she had a form of ringworm so she wasn't particularly attractive at the sale."

Shirreffs told Simon she had a rash at the time.

"So, it's been from rash to riches?" Simon joked. "I don't quite believe I said that."

Under Shirreffs' tutelage, Zenyatta has won more than $6 million. But she was a late starter, not ready and too immature, Shirreffs thought, to run in the big races when she was a little kid.

Asked why he didn't run her in the Kentucky Derby when she was three years old, Shirreffs told Simon, "You know, she wasn't, as a three year old, she wasn't ready to race. You know, it took her a long time to mature into the horse she is now. And we just had to be patient with her."

Shirreffs gave Zenyatta time to grow up, and he insisted on doing it at his own pace, without ever losing his temper. He thinks horses know when people are tense and they don't like it. We spent nearly a week with Zenyatta and, for a celebrity of her stature, we had unusual access.

We could watch her beauty treatments in the morning, the bandaging of her legs in the afternoon. We hung out with her on the lawn, which was planted just for her.

Zenyatta's owners Ann and Jerry Moss, who made their fortune in the music business, know how to pamper their starlet.

"She's touched and handled by 14, oh, at least 14 people a day," Jerry Moss said.

"She's touched by 14 people a day?" Simon asked.

"Over 14," Moss replied. "At least 14 people a day."

According to Moss, someone is with Zenyatta 24 hours a day.

"Pretty cozy," Simon remarked.

"It is," Ann Moss acknowledged.

But the training on the track is regimented and rigorous. Five days a week, John Shirreffs has Zenyatta run at a moderately slow pace. She doesn't like slow, so her exercise rider has to use all his strength to hold her back.

Then once a week, she's let loose. But even then, Mike Smith says, she's not nearly at full throttle.

"What does it feel like being on her?" Simon asked.

"You know, there's just so much power," Smith said. "She's so athletic for such a big, big horse, which is just amazing."

"How does it feel when she starts her surge?" Simon asked.

"It's pretty amazing because within a matter of two or three jumps she can make up close to ten lengths," Smith said.

It's even more stunning from the jockey's perspective. "It's wild. It's mind-boggling too," Smith explained.

"Now who decides when she starts the surge? Is it you? Or is it her?" Simon asked.

"It's me most of the time. But it's also her at times. She's like a loaded gun," Smith said. "When you pull the trigger, I mean, she's gonna fire."

And every day, after the workout, it's lunch time.

"Here's a question I think trainers all over the world will want to hear your answer to. What do you feed her?" Simon asked.

"Well, you know, we give her oats and hay," Shirreffs said.

"Come on," Simon said, laughing. "Come on, you don't expect people to believe that."

"Well, okay, so we add a little bit of Aloe Vera juice, right. We give her Aloe Vera juice 'cause it's good for their stomachs. And then, if she's been really good, I could pop open a Guinness and she could have a beer in the afternoon," Shirreffs said.

Usually, Shirreffs said, she only gets one beer.

Asked how she'd react if she were given a different beer, he told Simon, "I've tried that. …And Guinness is very expensive. She won't do it, you know. "

"Talk about a high-class horse," Simon remarked.

"Yeah, she just won't, she won't accept it. You know, it's got to be the stout," Shirreffs said.

And that's perfectly okay, because Shirreffs is happy to let her be a prima donna.

"When she's playing to the crowd, how do you see it? What physical manifestation is there?" Simon asked.

"Well, she gets very bright, you know. She puffs herself up. You know, she looks very strong and her eyes seem to stick out a little bit. And she's just really bright and alert. Her ears are extremely, you know, her ears are like this. She's just listening for anything. Look over here, look over there. She's really into it. Her whole focus is on what's going on around her," Shirreffs said.

"You really think that when she's prancing before the crowd, sticking her ears up, you really think she knows what she's doing?" Simon asked.

"Absolutely. Yeah. There's no doubt about it. Yeah," Shirreffs said. "There's no doubt about it. She just feeds off of it."

And the magazines feed off of her: Zenyatta is profiled this month in "W" magazine; Oprah calls her one of 20 women rocking the world. The editors didn't try to interview Zenyatta, but Shirreffs says he talks to horses all the time.

"Horses are very special. You can talk to 'em, you can work out your problems with 'em," he told Simon.

"How do you communicate? What do you communicate with Zenyatta?" Simon asked.

"Yeah, well, you know, when you look up into her face, and look in her eyes, and you just say 'You're doing great. You're the best ever. Thank you for everything you've given me.' And you just see that really kind look. You know, you have a feeling that she's actually understanding you," he replied.

"Maybe she is," Simon remarked.

"Yeah, yeah. You have to believe it, don't you?" Sherriffs said.

The Breeders' Cup is the richest race in the country. If Zenyatta wins Saturday, for the second year in a row, she'll take home another $3 million. And that's not all: this $60,000 filly will be lifted into another sphere.

"I think she could arguably go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest horse of all time," jockey Mike Smith said.

"Better than Secretariat?" Simon asked.

"Well, if we can pull it off, she's never been beaten. So how can you argue with perfection, you know?" Smith replied.

She'll be the oldest horse in Saturday's race. And when she goes into the final stretch and crosses that wire, the curtain will fall and there will be no encores.

"She's gonna have a good life after this. Green pastures. Motherhood," Simon remarked.

"Yeah. They often talk about who they'd breed her to. And I've always said no one's worthy," Smith said.

"No man is worthy of…Zenyatta," Simon remarked.

"No. Not at all. Not even close," Smith agreed.

Win or lose, Zenyatta will retire after Saturday's race - one more indication of how much wiser she is than so many other Hollywood celebrities.

She'll leave the game while she's still in her prime, before her star begins to wane. But one can't stop wondering, when she's in her green and peaceful pastures, whether she'll miss all this - the tumult of the track, the clamor of the crowd?