The brilliant mare Zenyatta stretched her 100 per cent record to 18 with a cheeky neck victory in the $300,000 Clement L. Hirsch Stakes at Del Mar last night.
The six-year-old was winning the Grade One contest for the third year running and regular partner Mike Smith felt she was toying with her rivals as she cheekily defeated the pace-setting Rinterval.
"She literally was playing," he told www.thoroughbredtimes.com. "I hit the front too soon, and when she gets to the front she wants to salute the fans.
"She started looking around. She does that sometimes in her works. She'll make the front and then start to shut down a little bit. That mare that hooked her today [Rinterval] was game."
Zenyatta has now earned $6,254,580 in prize money and is within one win of Peppers Pride's modern North American record of 19 consecutive victories.
