Zenyatta was born on April 1 -- no kidding -- and she made her racing debut on Thanksgiving. Youre welcome.After such delightful coincidences of the calendar, anything was possible. So, why not 19 straight wins and nearly a 20th, three championship seasons and Horse of the Year, international fame and adoration, and a place on the Hall of Fame wall in Saratoga Springs in her first year of eligibility?Those of us lucky enough to witness the emergence of Zenyatta as a filly of consequence attach our memories to special moments. For this reporter, Zenyatta was always a necessary stop, if only to stand at her stall and wonder aloud how it was possible for anything so big to be so fast and so sweet.Though counterintuitive in Americas culture of speed, Zenyatta was a racehorse who led from behind. She turned races upside down, requiring race-callers to account for her every stride at the back of the pack as if that is where the action was truly unfolding, because it was.Her athleticism in full flight was a sight to behold. Here is Zenyatta skipping lightly over the heels of stablemate Life Is Sweet when Garrett Gomez tried to sucker Mike Smith to the rail on the backstretch of the 2009 Milady Handicap. Here is Zenyatta looking right and then diving left to hit a narrow hole in the 2010 Santa Margarita Handicap. Here is Zenyatta knifing between horses on the turn of the 2009 Breeders Cup Classic before picking her seam and running down Gio Ponti.It was inside the sixteenth pole, said Ramon Dominguez, who rode Gio Ponti that day and will be inducted on Friday as well. Thats when I heard the commotion from the public. I looked over and saw her and thought, Okay. There was nothing I could do.Zenyatta was 5 for 5 when she had her first tough day in the 2008 Vanity Handicap, her first race at nine furlongs. She washed out, fussed going to the post, and pulled herself up once she hit the lead to beat Tough Tizs Sis by only half a length.You want them to be challenged, said her trainer, John Shirreffs, in the wake of that race. You dont want them to have it easy all the time, especially not when theyll be facing much tougher opposition as you go along.Zenyattas opposition often was maligned as moderate, a function, no doubt, of the ease with which she devoured most of her fields in hand. Let the record show, however, that her beaten opponents included champion Gio Ponti, champion Summer Bird, champion Ginger Punch, Breeders Cup winner Life Is Sweet, Santa Anita Handicap winner Einstein, and the major stakes winners Switch, Hystericalady, Music Note, Cocoa Beach, St Trinians, and stablemate Zardana, who upset Rachel Alexandra in New Orleans, the same Rachel Alexandra being inducted alongside Zenyatta.The Hall of Fame spotlight will be on Zenyattas owners, Ann and Jerry Moss, as well as Shirreffs and his wife, Dottie. And, of course, Mike Smith, who rode Zenyatta with the confidence of a man running for a train he knew hed always catch.Shes the best thing that ever happened to me, thats for sure, Smith said.The sentiment is echoed, especially by Jerry Moss, who bought the daughter of Street Cry as a yearling for $60,000.She was big and beautiful, Moss said. She just had this skin rash. We were prepared to go much higher for her, and when the hammer stopped, I just wanted to make sure it was us. Kiss a frog, see what happens.Call it kismet. Call it a fairy tale. Give it whatever name you like.I take no credit other than to admit I am a very lucky man, Moss said. If some of my luck seems to have gotten into the equine part of my life, so be it. Ill accept the credit for being lucky.Moss would be the first to spread the credit around. The list of people who deserve praise for Zenyattas care and well-being also includes Mario Espinoza, Frank Leal, Felipe Rivera, Michelle Jensen, Freddy Miller, and Steve Willard. If their names are not on her Hall of Fame plaque, they should be.I also have to attribute a lot of her success to David Flores, Shirreffs once said, referring to Zenyattas jockey through her first three starts, before Smith took over. He was so patient with her in those earlier races. She would break slow, and he did nothing to rush her or ask her to do anything she wasnt ready to do. She won anyway, but the experiences were positive and helped her a lot.Zenyattas narrow loss in her final start to Blame in the 2010 Breeders Cup Classic proved that she was, at last, human after all. The race still stings, perfection being so very close, but nothing is held against her.To have a horse of this nature, this stature, is a dream come true, Moss said upon her retirement. I just love her. I just hope shes happy and healthy and goes on to be all shes suppose to be.As her plaque is presented on Friday and the crowd at Saratoga stands in ovation, Zenyatta will be lolling about in her 15-acre pasture at Lanes End Farm in Kentucky, probably finding some shade. She is in foal to Medaglia dOro, a Travers and Whitney winner, after having lost her fourth and most recent foal last April to postpartum complications.They certainly mourn the loss of a foal, said Todd Claunch, Lanes End assistant manager. But you could tell, when we brought her back and put her in her paddock, she put her head up, looked around, and said, Im home now. You could see the release in her eye.When she was a maiden mare, Id never seen such a muscular horse, Claunch added. She was like a gladiator. She doesnt exercise herself as much now, but shes still in great shape.Its really nice having her here at the farm. But watching her train and race, that must have been really spectacular.Yes, it really was. Barcelona Jerseys From China . Its 1987 and a Brazilian playmaker, known as Mirandinha, is being paraded around St James Park to the passionate Newcastle fans. Barcelona Carles Alena Jersey . 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LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Two Russian track and field athletes have failed in a bid to have their ban from the Olympics put on hold.Two-time Olympic pole vault gold medalist Yelena Isinbayeva and world 110-meter hurdles champion Sergei Shubenkov had applied to the Swiss Federal Court to delay application of an earlier Court of Arbitration for Sport ruling which upheld the Russian teams ban from the Olympic track meet. Had they won, it could have allowed them to compete at the Rio de Janeiro Games.However, the Swiss court ruled that the two Russians had waited too long after the CAS ruling to file their request and that they had failed to demonstrate that they met the International Olympic Committees criteria to compete in Rio.The last hope to perform at the Olympic Games has disappeared, Isinbayeva wrote on Instagram.Shubenkov, however, insisted he and Isinbayeva would fight on in court.It doesnt in any way stop us from further actions, Shubenkov, who is a lawyer by training, told Russias state Tasss news agency.dddddddddddd Well keep going according to the plan we had. This is just the first step.The head of the Russian track federation told local media that it was unlikely any appeals would be in time for the countrys athletes to take part in Olympic track and field, which starts Friday and runs through Aug. 21.Russia was banned from international track and field, including the Olympics, in November over widespread doping. That followed the publication of a World Anti-Doping Agency-commissioned report alleging a culture of performance-enhancing drug use and cover-ups in the Russian track team.Isinbayeva said she still plans to travel to Rio on Sunday to seek election to the International Olympic Committee as an athletes representative. If she fails to win, Russia would lose one of its three IOC spots, since current representative Alexander Popovs term ends in Rio. 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