Zenyatta, US racing’s 2010 Horse of the Year, has foaled a colt sired by 2006 Preakness winner Bernardini.
The foal was born at Lane’s End Farm in Versailles, Kentucky, on Thursday and weighed in at 130 pounds.
After winning the coveted Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2009, Zenyatta became a crossover sensation in the United States, profiled on the venerable television news program “60 Minutes” and hailed by Oprah Winfrey.
She was retired soon after she was narrowly beaten in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic, that defeat the lone blemish in her scintillating racing career of 19 wins from 20 starts.
The birth of Zenyatta’s foal comes less than two months after Rachel Alexandra, who edged Zenyatta for the 2009 US Horse of the Year award, foaled a colt sired by 2007 and 2008 Horse of the Year Curlin.
The arrivals raise the tantalising prospect of a possible US Triple Crown rivalry between them in 2015 when the country’s top three-year-old horses race for glory at the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes.