Join now & win money today! Get Started

Heavenly Sunday Cruises Clear In Off-The-Turf Mrs. Revere

---

Heavenly Sunday, who made her first career start on dirt after eight previous starts on turf, rolled past pacesetter Callie’s Grit at the top of the stretch and widened her margin inside the final furlong to win Friday’s off-the-turf $298,250 Mrs. Revere by five lengths over Beach Walkin.

Owned by William B. Harrigan’s Miacomet Farm, Heavenly Sunday ran the 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-old fillies in 1:44.69 on a fast track. Florent Geroux rode the winner for trainer Brad Cox.

The field was reduced from 12 entries to nine starters when turf racing called off for the final three days of the Fall Meet after track officials were not satisfied with the turf course’s condition.

The Mrs. Revere was carded a Grade 3 event but was downgraded to listed status pending a review by the American Graded Stakes Committee.

Heavenly Sunday banked the $178,800 first prize and rewarded her backers $4.82 for the win.

“She’s always worked well on the dirt so we thought she’d handle things just fine,” Cox said. “When she started her career we put her on grass and because she did so well we’ve always kept her on it. She was impressive today and can give her another option moving forward on dirt.”

Breaking from post No. 9, Heavenly Sunday raced just off the tail of pacesetter Callie’s Grit, who set fractions of :23.95, :48.81, and 1:13.32 during the early stages of the race. Heavenly Sunday pulled her way to the front leaving the final turn and drew away down the stretch while geared down late for the comfortable win.

“We sat a great trip,” Geroux said. “She’s a pretty versatile filly with her running style. She worked like she would handle the dirt fine and did.”

Beach Walkin outfinished Make the Boys Wink by 1 ¼ lengths for second.

Callie’s Grit, Neecie Marie, Safeen, Sabalenka, Financial Advice (FR), and Cha Cha Tap completed the order of finish. Hay Stack, Bling and Watch This Birdie were scratched.

The winner’s share of the purse pushed Heavenly Sunday’s earnings to $708,683 from a record of 4-2-2 in nine starts. Prior to the Mrs. Revere, Heavenly Sunday finished second to Surge Capacity in the Valley View (G3) at Keeneland on Oct. 27. Earlier this year, she won the Edgewood (G2) on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard at Churchill Downs.

Heavenly Sunday is a dark bay or brown daughter of Candy Ride (ARG) out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Alien Giant who and bred in Kentucky by Randal Family Trust.

The Mrs. Revere is named in honor of Mrs. Revere, an accomplished Churchill Downs fan favorite in the mid-1980s. Mrs. Revere won 12 races in 28 starts, finished second seven times and earned $429,545 for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Her six wins in a dozen starts at Churchill Downs included stakes triumphs in the Regret, Dogwood and Edgewood in 1984 and the Kentucky Cardinal in 1985. She was owned by Dr. Hiram Polk and the late Dr. David Richardson, who have provided the winner’s trophy for the Mrs. Revere in each year of its existence.

Eyes Wide Open: Can Acetaminophen Aide In Equine Ocular Issues?

---

Researchers at Colorado State University have found that acetaminophen may alleviate pain from equine eye conditions like uveitis. 

Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in human Tylenol, is not used often in equine medicine, said Dr. Kathryn L. Wotman, but it shows promise as a viable alternative to traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) like phenylbutazone (bute) and flunixin meglumine (Banamine). 

Acetaminophen works on different pain pathways so it might work for different types of pain, Wotman said. The drug also doesn’t have the same side effects as other NSAIDs and is less expensive. 

Wotman and a team of researchers studied acetaminophen use for ocular conditions as eye issues are notoriously difficult to treat: they can be painful and often require multiple ointments or drops or the placement of an ophthalmic catheter. 

Additionally, many systemic drugs don’t reach the clear fluid on the front part of the eye because of the blood/ocular barrier. Any drug that fails to penetrate that will be unable to relieve pain for inflammation, Wotman said. 

To test acetaminophen’s ability to address pain and swelling, Wotman and her team used six healthy horses with no history or eye issues. The horses were given a 20 mg/kg dose of oral acetaminophen every 12 hours for three days. 

The scientists then drew blood and aqueous humor samples from the horses to test for acetaminophen concentrations. The drug was detected in both samples. 

Next, the team will test if the drug can reduce pain in the eye like that associated with ulcers and uveitis. If the drug is effective in reducing ocular pain, it may be able to be alternated with other NSAIDS, offering horses even greater relief, Wotman said. 

Read more at EQUUS magazine. 

Six Wins for Franco at Aqueduct Thursday

---

Jockey Manny Franco booted home six winners Thursday on Aqueduct’s nine-race card, including three consecutive victories to close the day. The six wins pushed his winter meet win total to 25, which leads the current jockey standings.

“My agent [John Panagot] is the best, doing a terrific job,” said Franco said. “Every day, he tries to get the best mounts possible. I’m happy to have him on my side. I’m thankful for these opportunities.”

Franco kicked off the day with a win aboard Sea Vista (Street Sense) in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden in Race 1, then captured Race 3, a six-furlong claimer, with Kadena (Ghostzapper). He also won Race 5 with Mathea (Tacitus) in a one-turn mile maiden for New York-breds and Race 7, a 6 1/2-furlong claimer, with Top Player (Mitole). He then closed out the card with wins in Race 8, a nine-furlong state-bred allowance, with Otherpeoplesmoney (Central Banker) and in Race 9, a seven-furlong maiden auction optional claimer, with Hot Gossip (Curlin).

“I want to thank God first,” said Franco. “Also, thank you to all the trainers, the owners, for always giving me their trust. All year round, I just try to deliver out there. When I have the horse, when I got horse under me, I’m going to make it happen. That’s my job.”

The post Six Wins for Franco at Aqueduct Thursday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Training Great John Shirreffs Passes Away at 80

---

A trainer built equal parts brilliant and idiosyncratic, John Shirreffs passed away quietly in his sleep overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning. He was 80 years old.

He leaves behind the kind of record unmatched by all but a select few.

At the summit of Shirreffs’s mammoth achievements was of course Zenyatta–elegant and imperious, who between 2007 and 2010 achieved the near impossible: 19 straight wins and 13 Grade I victories including back-to-back Breeders’ Cup crowns, one of them a Classic.

Zenyatta was just denied an exquisite send-off in the Breeders’ Cup Classic of 2010, her customary late charge customarily irresistible–irresistible to all but Blame, who derailed history by a head. The deflated echoes from the tens of thousands at Churchill Downs that day could have filled an airship.

But Zenyatta was just one of so many superlative runners who performed under the Shirreffs banner down through the decades, each of them nurtured along by a trainer who did things his way. And his was a potent brew of patience, individual care and a horseman’s eye that was more of an X-ray into the souls of the horses that walked past him at his barn each day.

A Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, Shirreffs cut his teeth as a horseman in the jutting mountain cathedrals of Northern California’s Grass Valley at the sprawling Loma Rica Horse Ranch, where the transatlantic phenom Noor would later be interred.

He started out on his own in 1976, beginning a career that would see him train nearly 600 winners and earn some $58 million. There were plenty of good ones.

Shirreffs trained an upset winner of the Kentucky Derby, Giacomo, in 2005. In 2009, he conditioned a companion Breeders’ Cup winner to Zenyatta, Life Is Sweet in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic.

He could train the precocious sorts who came to the boil early. But he was especially adept with the late-bloomers and the quirky sorts who had a way of navigating the world as differently as their trainer.

He could do it because he could read a horse the way an accountant reads the ledgers.

“The industry has lost one of the most amazing trainers ever,” said jockey Mike Smith, who enjoyed so many great days with Shirreffs. He rode Zenyatta in 17 of her 20 races.

“Not only was he great horseman; he was a great man. Boy, he was, whew… it’s hard. He meant everything to me, man, not just in my career but in my personal life. We were very, very close,” said Smith.

“He was big John, man,” Smith added, of the six-foot plus trainer. “I’m just thinking about his whole crew. I just can’t imagine his barn and what they’re going through right now. He meant so much to them as well, you know,” he said.

For Shirreffs, “the horse came first,” said Smith. “He’d get inside their heads, you know. He just knew things that a lot of other people didn’t. He’d try different things, work with them until it worked, give them all the time that they need for it to work. He was just really great at that.”

In 2021, Shirreffs gave a glimpse into this thinking for a series of articles in the TDN.

He talked about his one-eyed Grade I winner Hard Not to Love, a nervous filly. He put a mirror in her stall to help with her field of vision. “It made all the world of difference,” he said at the time.

John Shirreffs with his Derby winner Giacomo in 2005 | Horsephotos

He talked about Morning Line, a top-class runner on the East Coast who had lost his way completely. After the horse arrived at the Shirreffs barn in California, it was back to basics.

First, the driving reins. Then a rider with the driving reins–a performance that necessitated a relay race, where the more athletic members of the Shirreffs’s team would be situated around the track, ready to be handed the driving reins from their rubber-legged counterparts.

“Pretty soon, it got to the point where we just started him with the driving reins, and then the rider would let go of them and carry on like usual,” said Shirreffs.

On his first start for Shirreffs, Morning Line won the GII Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood Park, and two starts later, finished third in the GI Triple Bend Handicap.

Shirreffs approached his craft by burying into the horse’s psyche, encapsulated so perfectly when he discussed what he termed the “bio-rhythm” of a horse. This is the idea that a racehorse can be brought to peak performance only when they’re mentally, physically and emotionally in balance.

“You have to figure out how to get things flowing together,” Shirreffs explained at the time. “So, when they’re physically at their peak they might not be mentally at their peak because you’ve trained them really hard, but mentally they’re tired or emotionally they’re off–you know, upset about being pushed so hard.

He continued, “So, you’re going to have to lose a little bit of conditioning maybe to bring them up mentally and emotionally, right? It’s always: How close you can get everything?

“That’s the one great thing about campaigning a horse, because when they’re campaigning, they’re conditioning–they’re physically staying at a pretty high level. And as they campaign, and as they get used to the rigors of racing and training, mentally they’re getting stronger, too. And then, if there’s some sort of pleasure involved–some sort of reward for the horse–then they’re emotionally getting better,” he explained.

“John was better than anyone when it came to preparing a horse for the race day. John was a tremendous horseman. A tremendous and true horseman that had so much knowledge, so much care, so much experience. Just a hell of a man,” said Lee Searing, of CRK Stables, one of Shirreffs’s most loyal patrons in the latter stages of his career.

Together, they campaigned the likes of Express Train, Baeza and more recently Westwood, the latter proving Shirreffs’s very last graded stakes winner, taking last month’s GII San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita.

“It’s funny because John wasn’t the guy that shows up in the winner’s circle, you know, all ‘rah-rah-rah.’ John was the guy that hid behind the camera. He wanted people to remember his work,” said Searing.
Searing had just taken a trip to Florida with Shirreffs to view the yearlings and the 2-year-olds. He describes a man with an insatiable intellectual curiosity and the heart of a raconteur.

“He dearly loved putting his chairs outside his barn of an afternoon, holding court,” said Searing. “I mean, that man never missed a three o’clock, when he’d come back to the barn for feeding. He’d sit in his chairs and so many people wanted to go over and talk to him because of his stories. He had so many stories.”

Shirreffs with his most famous charge, Zenyatta | Sarah Andrew

In a statement, Santa Anita wrote that it “joins the racing community in mourning the sudden passing of trainer John Shirreffs. He was a fixture at Santa Anita Park throughout his career and his legacy as a caring horsemen will remain embedded in the fabric of our history.

“Every horse who races at Santa Anita must first pass by the statue of John’s greatest trainee, the wonderful mare Zenyatta.  While John’s victories were plentiful and prestigious, what he accomplished with Zenyatta in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic was a masterpiece and deservedly was voted as the top moment in Santa Anita Park’s 90 years.

“Our deepest condolences are extended to John’s wife, Dottie, and his family, including those horsemen and women who worked closely with John for so many years. May his memory be a blessing.”

Breeders’ Cup also released a statement Thursday evening mourning the loss: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of John Shirreffs, whose grace, humility, and skillful horsemanship left an indelible mark on our great sport.

“Beyond his three victories at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships–with Life Is Sweet in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and with Zenyatta in both the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and her historic 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic–John was widely respected for his integrity, patience, and steadfast commitment to the care and development of his horses.

“Campaigning Zenyatta to a Hall of Fame career, he never failed to make the great racemare accessible to her fans, promoting the sport to thousands across the nation and around the world. He understood the responsibility that comes with greatness and embraced the opportunity to share it, helping broaden racing’s audience and inspire a new generation of fans. 

“Our heartfelt condolences are with his family, team, and friends.”

Shirreffs is survived by his wife, Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, sister Anita Shirreffs, stepson David Ingordo (Cherie DeVaux), and step-granddaughter Reagan Ingordo.

“John and Dottie were a team,” said Searing. “She’ll always be remembered for being a big part of his success.”

The post Training Great John Shirreffs Passes Away at 80 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Heavenly Sunday Cruises Clear In Off-The-Turf Mrs. Revere

---

Heavenly Sunday, who made her first career start on dirt after eight previous starts on turf, rolled past pacesetter Callie’s Grit at the top of the stretch and widened her margin inside the final furlong to win Friday’s off-the-turf $298,250 Mrs. Revere by five lengths over Beach Walkin.

Owned by William B. Harrigan’s Miacomet Farm, Heavenly Sunday ran the 1 1/16 miles for 3-year-old fillies in 1:44.69 on a fast track. Florent Geroux rode the winner for trainer Brad Cox.

The field was reduced from 12 entries to nine starters when turf racing called off for the final three days of the Fall Meet after track officials were not satisfied with the turf course’s condition.

The Mrs. Revere was carded a Grade 3 event but was downgraded to listed status pending a review by the American Graded Stakes Committee.

Heavenly Sunday banked the $178,800 first prize and rewarded her backers $4.82 for the win.

“She’s always worked well on the dirt so we thought she’d handle things just fine,” Cox said. “When she started her career we put her on grass and because she did so well we’ve always kept her on it. She was impressive today and can give her another option moving forward on dirt.”

Breaking from post No. 9, Heavenly Sunday raced just off the tail of pacesetter Callie’s Grit, who set fractions of :23.95, :48.81, and 1:13.32 during the early stages of the race. Heavenly Sunday pulled her way to the front leaving the final turn and drew away down the stretch while geared down late for the comfortable win.

“We sat a great trip,” Geroux said. “She’s a pretty versatile filly with her running style. She worked like she would handle the dirt fine and did.”

Beach Walkin outfinished Make the Boys Wink by 1 ¼ lengths for second.

Callie’s Grit, Neecie Marie, Safeen, Sabalenka, Financial Advice (FR), and Cha Cha Tap completed the order of finish. Hay Stack, Bling and Watch This Birdie were scratched.

The winner’s share of the purse pushed Heavenly Sunday’s earnings to $708,683 from a record of 4-2-2 in nine starts. Prior to the Mrs. Revere, Heavenly Sunday finished second to Surge Capacity in the Valley View (G3) at Keeneland on Oct. 27. Earlier this year, she won the Edgewood (G2) on the Kentucky Oaks (G1) undercard at Churchill Downs.

Heavenly Sunday is a dark bay or brown daughter of Candy Ride (ARG) out of the Giant’s Causeway mare Alien Giant who and bred in Kentucky by Randal Family Trust.

The Mrs. Revere is named in honor of Mrs. Revere, an accomplished Churchill Downs fan favorite in the mid-1980s. Mrs. Revere won 12 races in 28 starts, finished second seven times and earned $429,545 for Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott. Her six wins in a dozen starts at Churchill Downs included stakes triumphs in the Regret, Dogwood and Edgewood in 1984 and the Kentucky Cardinal in 1985. She was owned by Dr. Hiram Polk and the late Dr. David Richardson, who have provided the winner’s trophy for the Mrs. Revere in each year of its existence.

Eyes Wide Open: Can Acetaminophen Aide In Equine Ocular Issues?

---

Researchers at Colorado State University have found that acetaminophen may alleviate pain from equine eye conditions like uveitis. 

Acetaminophen, the active ingredient in human Tylenol, is not used often in equine medicine, said Dr. Kathryn L. Wotman, but it shows promise as a viable alternative to traditional non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) like phenylbutazone (bute) and flunixin meglumine (Banamine). 

Acetaminophen works on different pain pathways so it might work for different types of pain, Wotman said. The drug also doesn’t have the same side effects as other NSAIDs and is less expensive. 

Wotman and a team of researchers studied acetaminophen use for ocular conditions as eye issues are notoriously difficult to treat: they can be painful and often require multiple ointments or drops or the placement of an ophthalmic catheter. 

Additionally, many systemic drugs don’t reach the clear fluid on the front part of the eye because of the blood/ocular barrier. Any drug that fails to penetrate that will be unable to relieve pain for inflammation, Wotman said. 

To test acetaminophen’s ability to address pain and swelling, Wotman and her team used six healthy horses with no history or eye issues. The horses were given a 20 mg/kg dose of oral acetaminophen every 12 hours for three days. 

The scientists then drew blood and aqueous humor samples from the horses to test for acetaminophen concentrations. The drug was detected in both samples. 

Next, the team will test if the drug can reduce pain in the eye like that associated with ulcers and uveitis. If the drug is effective in reducing ocular pain, it may be able to be alternated with other NSAIDS, offering horses even greater relief, Wotman said. 

Read more at EQUUS magazine. 

Six Wins for Franco at Aqueduct Thursday

---

Jockey Manny Franco booted home six winners Thursday on Aqueduct’s nine-race card, including three consecutive victories to close the day. The six wins pushed his winter meet win total to 25, which leads the current jockey standings.

“My agent [John Panagot] is the best, doing a terrific job,” said Franco said. “Every day, he tries to get the best mounts possible. I’m happy to have him on my side. I’m thankful for these opportunities.”

Franco kicked off the day with a win aboard Sea Vista (Street Sense) in a 6 1/2-furlong maiden in Race 1, then captured Race 3, a six-furlong claimer, with Kadena (Ghostzapper). He also won Race 5 with Mathea (Tacitus) in a one-turn mile maiden for New York-breds and Race 7, a 6 1/2-furlong claimer, with Top Player (Mitole). He then closed out the card with wins in Race 8, a nine-furlong state-bred allowance, with Otherpeoplesmoney (Central Banker) and in Race 9, a seven-furlong maiden auction optional claimer, with Hot Gossip (Curlin).

“I want to thank God first,” said Franco. “Also, thank you to all the trainers, the owners, for always giving me their trust. All year round, I just try to deliver out there. When I have the horse, when I got horse under me, I’m going to make it happen. That’s my job.”

The post Six Wins for Franco at Aqueduct Thursday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Training Great John Shirreffs Passes Away at 80

---

A trainer built equal parts brilliant and idiosyncratic, John Shirreffs passed away quietly in his sleep overnight Wednesday into Thursday morning. He was 80 years old.

He leaves behind the kind of record unmatched by all but a select few.

At the summit of Shirreffs’s mammoth achievements was of course Zenyatta–elegant and imperious, who between 2007 and 2010 achieved the near impossible: 19 straight wins and 13 Grade I victories including back-to-back Breeders’ Cup crowns, one of them a Classic.

Zenyatta was just denied an exquisite send-off in the Breeders’ Cup Classic of 2010, her customary late charge customarily irresistible–irresistible to all but Blame, who derailed history by a head. The deflated echoes from the tens of thousands at Churchill Downs that day could have filled an airship.

But Zenyatta was just one of so many superlative runners who performed under the Shirreffs banner down through the decades, each of them nurtured along by a trainer who did things his way. And his was a potent brew of patience, individual care and a horseman’s eye that was more of an X-ray into the souls of the horses that walked past him at his barn each day.

A Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, Shirreffs cut his teeth as a horseman in the jutting mountain cathedrals of Northern California’s Grass Valley at the sprawling Loma Rica Horse Ranch, where the transatlantic phenom Noor would later be interred.

He started out on his own in 1976, beginning a career that would see him train nearly 600 winners and earn some $58 million. There were plenty of good ones.

Shirreffs trained an upset winner of the Kentucky Derby, Giacomo, in 2005. In 2009, he conditioned a companion Breeders’ Cup winner to Zenyatta, Life Is Sweet in the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic.

He could train the precocious sorts who came to the boil early. But he was especially adept with the late-bloomers and the quirky sorts who had a way of navigating the world as differently as their trainer.

He could do it because he could read a horse the way an accountant reads the ledgers.

“The industry has lost one of the most amazing trainers ever,” said jockey Mike Smith, who enjoyed so many great days with Shirreffs. He rode Zenyatta in 17 of her 20 races.

“Not only was he great horseman; he was a great man. Boy, he was, whew… it’s hard. He meant everything to me, man, not just in my career but in my personal life. We were very, very close,” said Smith.

“He was big John, man,” Smith added, of the six-foot plus trainer. “I’m just thinking about his whole crew. I just can’t imagine his barn and what they’re going through right now. He meant so much to them as well, you know,” he said.

For Shirreffs, “the horse came first,” said Smith. “He’d get inside their heads, you know. He just knew things that a lot of other people didn’t. He’d try different things, work with them until it worked, give them all the time that they need for it to work. He was just really great at that.”

In 2021, Shirreffs gave a glimpse into this thinking for a series of articles in the TDN.

He talked about his one-eyed Grade I winner Hard Not to Love, a nervous filly. He put a mirror in her stall to help with her field of vision. “It made all the world of difference,” he said at the time.

John Shirreffs with his Derby winner Giacomo in 2005 | Horsephotos

He talked about Morning Line, a top-class runner on the East Coast who had lost his way completely. After the horse arrived at the Shirreffs barn in California, it was back to basics.

First, the driving reins. Then a rider with the driving reins–a performance that necessitated a relay race, where the more athletic members of the Shirreffs’s team would be situated around the track, ready to be handed the driving reins from their rubber-legged counterparts.

“Pretty soon, it got to the point where we just started him with the driving reins, and then the rider would let go of them and carry on like usual,” said Shirreffs.

On his first start for Shirreffs, Morning Line won the GII Mervyn LeRoy Handicap at Hollywood Park, and two starts later, finished third in the GI Triple Bend Handicap.

Shirreffs approached his craft by burying into the horse’s psyche, encapsulated so perfectly when he discussed what he termed the “bio-rhythm” of a horse. This is the idea that a racehorse can be brought to peak performance only when they’re mentally, physically and emotionally in balance.

“You have to figure out how to get things flowing together,” Shirreffs explained at the time. “So, when they’re physically at their peak they might not be mentally at their peak because you’ve trained them really hard, but mentally they’re tired or emotionally they’re off–you know, upset about being pushed so hard.

He continued, “So, you’re going to have to lose a little bit of conditioning maybe to bring them up mentally and emotionally, right? It’s always: How close you can get everything?

“That’s the one great thing about campaigning a horse, because when they’re campaigning, they’re conditioning–they’re physically staying at a pretty high level. And as they campaign, and as they get used to the rigors of racing and training, mentally they’re getting stronger, too. And then, if there’s some sort of pleasure involved–some sort of reward for the horse–then they’re emotionally getting better,” he explained.

“John was better than anyone when it came to preparing a horse for the race day. John was a tremendous horseman. A tremendous and true horseman that had so much knowledge, so much care, so much experience. Just a hell of a man,” said Lee Searing, of CRK Stables, one of Shirreffs’s most loyal patrons in the latter stages of his career.

Together, they campaigned the likes of Express Train, Baeza and more recently Westwood, the latter proving Shirreffs’s very last graded stakes winner, taking last month’s GII San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita.

“It’s funny because John wasn’t the guy that shows up in the winner’s circle, you know, all ‘rah-rah-rah.’ John was the guy that hid behind the camera. He wanted people to remember his work,” said Searing.

Searing had just taken a trip to Florida with Shirreffs to view the yearlings and the 2-year-olds. He describes a man with an insatiable intellectual curiosity and the heart of a raconteur.

“He dearly loved putting his chairs outside his barn of an afternoon, holding court,” said Searing. “I mean, that man never missed a three o’clock, when he’d come back to the barn for feeding. He’d sit in his chairs and so many people wanted to go over and talk to him because of his stories. He had so many stories.”

Shirreffs with his most famous charge, Zenyatta | Sarah Andrew

In a statement, Santa Anita wrote that it “joins the racing community in mourning the sudden passing of trainer John Shirreffs. He was a fixture at Santa Anita Park throughout his career and his legacy as a caring horsemen will remain embedded in the fabric of our history.

“Every horse who races at Santa Anita must first pass by the statue of John’s greatest trainee, the wonderful mare Zenyatta.  While John’s victories were plentiful and prestigious, what he accomplished with Zenyatta in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic was a masterpiece and deservedly was voted as the top moment in Santa Anita Park’s 90 years.

“Our deepest condolences are extended to John’s wife, Dottie, and his family, including those horsemen and women who worked closely with John for so many years. May his memory be a blessing.”

Breeders’ Cup also released a statement Thursday evening mourning the loss: “We are deeply saddened to learn of the passing of John Shirreffs, whose grace, humility, and skillful horsemanship left an indelible mark on our great sport.

“Beyond his three victories at the Breeders’ Cup World Championships–with Life Is Sweet in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and with Zenyatta in both the 2008 Breeders’ Cup Distaff and her historic 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic–John was widely respected for his integrity, patience, and steadfast commitment to the care and development of his horses.

“Campaigning Zenyatta to a Hall of Fame career, he never failed to make the great racemare accessible to her fans, promoting the sport to thousands across the nation and around the world. He understood the responsibility that comes with greatness and embraced the opportunity to share it, helping broaden racing’s audience and inspire a new generation of fans. 

“Our heartfelt condolences are with his family, team, and friends.”

Shirreffs is survived by his wife, Dottie Ingordo-Shirreffs, sister Anita Shirreffs, stepson David Ingordo (Cherie DeVaux), and step-granddaughter Reagan Ingordo.

“John and Dottie were a team,” said Searing. “She’ll always be remembered for being a big part of his success.”

The post Training Great John Shirreffs Passes Away at 80 appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.