The second son of Zenyatta is approaching his long-awaited debut.
After a four-furlong breeze from the gate in :49 3/5 at Santa Anita Park Feb. 13, trainer John Shirreffs said Jerry and Ann Moss' homebred Ziconic will likely make his first start in a seven-furlong maiden special weight race over the main track at Santa Anita Feb. 20.
"It depended on how he worked out of the gate. That was a big determining factor," Shirreffs said Saturday morning. "He's been training very good. Mike Smith breezed him this morning and he liked him... Time to get him in there."
The 3-year-old Tapit colt will try to do better in his first race than his half-brother, Cozmic One, who debuted with a sixth-place finish last April at Santa Anita and ran seventh in another maiden special weight in July at Belmont Park, his only other start.
But Shirreffs said Ziconic doesn't share some of his half brother's hard-to-handle traits.
BALAN: Cozmic One Approaches Long-Awaited Debut
"He's a little different," Shirreffs said with a smile. "He's a little more focused than 'Coz.'"
For Cozmic One, a 4-year-old Bernardini colt, Shirreffs is leaning toward a 1 1/8-mile race at Santa Anita sometime soon.
"There's a race, possibly at a mile and an eighth, that might be coming up in the next book for him," the trainer said.
Zenyatta—who lost her third foal, a War Front filly, after a paddock accident—is currently back in foal to War Front.