Zenyatta, Shackleford And A New Book**
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Some of you know that in the midst of a very busy last year juggling writing and course restoration duties, I was also under the spell of Zenyatta, the great racing thoroughbred who made her home in Southern California. Like many, I wasn't really a follower of the sport until I experienced the energy and presence of this magnificent mare whose pre-race dances and thrilling come-from-behind style led to a record 19 consecutive victories.
If you want to learn a little more about Zenyatta, Sunday night's on 60 Minutes will include a replay (with updated footage) of the segment that first aired last October.
And if you are a fan or know of a horse racing fan, please consider my book of photos documenting visits to Barn 55, Zenyatta's home at Hollywood Park where she was lovingly cared for by John Shirreffs and his kind staff. Thanks to his desire to help the sport by exposing fans to Zenyatta's incredible energy and gentle ways, lucky fans were able to visit her and watch her train, a rare opportunity in the sport of thoroughbred racing. And thanks to a wonderful stroke of luck and her incredible love of the camera, I was able to spend time photographing Zenyatta and documenting the build-up to her final race.
You can preview the 8x10 hard ($45*) and soft cover ($30*) versions of the book courtesy of Blurb, the print-on-demand publisher I'm using and which I highly recommend if you are thinking of doing a book. You can also watch her races or check out more about the book at the website I've created for the book.
Here's a preview of select pages:
There is also a $75* 11x13 edition ideal for coffee tables.
*You can get 20% off using coupon codes NEWBLURB or ADBLURB.
The 60 Minutes Zenyatta feature is re-airing in part because this is Kentucky Derby week and a some of you may have noticed one of the horses emerging in a wide open field is Shackleford. The Dale Romans-trained horse is named after the former North Carolina State basketball star Charles and while it's a different spelling than mine, is typically how I get my named spelled thus allowing me to jump on Shackleford's bandwagon.
His final workout was a bullet, so on the first Saturday in May, look out for Shack!
**Well since we finally got Osama and his dialysis machine nine years later, West Coast viewers didn't get to see the segment while we waited on the White House to get the teleprompter warmed up. Here's the segment:
