Zenyatta to run her next-to-last race on Saturday

A racing legend takes to the track for the next-to-last time in her extraordinary career on Saturday afternoon, and that alone should bring a tear or two at Hollywood Park.

Her name is Zenyatta and, win or lose, the 6-year-old mare has always been a horse to stir the emotions.

Except, there have not been any losses for Zenyatta. Not one. She has been loaded into the starting gate 18 times and has reached the wire first 18 times, earning more than $6 million for owners Jerry and Ann Moss.

She is unbeaten, untied and unbelievable.

On Saturday, Zenyatta will be trying to stretch her string to 19 for trainer John Shirreffs by overcoming five rivals in the $250,000 Lady’s Secret Stakes, one of four Grade I races on the Oak Tree meeting card.

She will close out her career on Nov. 6 at Churchill Downs, where she will attempt to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic for the second year in a row.

After that, well, it’s nothing but clover.

What sort of a horse is Zenyatta and why has she captured the attention and imagination of the horse racing public ever since her maiden victory in 2007?

One man who has studied her intently because it was his task to capture her spirit for all time is Fred Stone, widely regarded as the country’s foremost equine artist.

“She represents something that might have been bred years ago in a thoroughbred that you don’t see anymore,” Stone said Friday afternoon. “That large body and frame and the ability to run fast.

“I’ve seen them all in my life, including Secretariat, and the only horse that even comes close to John Henry is Zenyatta. First, she’s gigantic. When she dies and they weigh her heart, it’s going to be bigger than Phar Lap’s and Secretariat’s. She towers over all the colts.

“She always looks into the distance. She doesn’t just look at you, she looks out and over everybody.”

Imperious, in other words. But also intimidating, especially with her trademark late rush from the back once she gets the signal to move.

“When she gets rolling, that’s it,” Stone said. “It’s like a giant freight train that needs to get going.”

Only two men know what it is like to be aboard for the ride — jockeys David Flores and Mike Smith.

Flores rode her to her first three victories, and on Thursday night, in the jockey’s room at Hollywood Park he said the experience of having her pin her ears back and then demolish the horses ahead of her still send shivers down his spine.

“You just put her out there and she knows what to do,” Flores said. “With the acceleration that she has in the last eighth of a mile, she’s unbelievable. She’s so strong. I get the chills right now just to remember how it feels.

“It was a privilege to ride a horse like that. It was a dream. When you ride a good horse, you know it, and she’s one of a kind.”

Zenyatta is unique, Smith agreed.

“It’s amazing, for such a big creature, how agile she is and how quick she can move,” he said.

“Even if I was not her rider I would rank her among the greatest of all time, and deservedly so. She beat everyone she was supposed to. That’s all she can do.

“Secretariat was the most incredible horse I’ve ever seen, and I think she deserves the right to be spoken about with him.”

Saturday’s other three $250,000 Grade 1 races are the 1 1/4 -mile Yellow Ribbon Stakes for fillies and mares on the turf; the 1 1/16-mile Norfolk Stakes for 2-year-olds, and the 1 1/8-mile Goodwood Stakes.

First post is at 1 p.m.

grahame.jones@latimes.com