John Shirreffs, trainer of Zenyatta, dies at 80

John Shirreffs’ legendary victories with the champion mare Zenyatta were only the biggest part of the trainer’s success and only one reason for his popularity at California thoroughbred racetracks.

So the news that Shirreffs died suddenly at age 80 hit the racing world especially hard. The Daily Racing Form reported that Shirreffs died in his sleep Thursday morning at his home near Santa Anita Park. He was said to have been feeling ill since returning from looking at 2-year-olds to buy in Ocala, Fla.

“It’s just really sad and shocking to hear of his passing,” trainer Doug O’Neill said in a phone interview. “He had a really unique, horse-first, horse-whisper type of mentality. (He) took (training) to another level and kind of tried to get into horses’ heads.”

Shirreffs’ most famous triumphs came with Jerry and Ann Moss’ Zenyatta, the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner against male horses at Santa Anita and 2010 North American Horse of the Year.

But he also trained the Mosses’ Giacomo to a 50-1 upset in the 2005 Kentucky Derby, Martin and Pam Wygod’s Life Is Sweet to an 8-1 surprise in the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Ladies’ Classic, and the Mosses’ Tiago and Lee and Susan Searing’s Express Train to wins in major California races.

Last year, the Searings’ Baeza ran third in the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes before winning the Pennsylvania Derby, and two weeks ago the same owners’ Westwood gave Shirreffs his 596th and last career victory in the San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita.

As he usually did after races, Shirreffs began to walk back to his barn with Westwood and the horse’s groom, before reporters coaxed him to stop and answer a few questions.

Lee Searing joked that Shirreffs “doesn’t share too much” information about how he trains, but whatever he does, it works.

Shirreffs didn’t seek the spotlight but was fascinating to talk with. In February 2025, the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, native sat in the Santa Anita grandstand watching morning workouts and reminiscing about falling in love with horses at age 14 while working at private stables on Long Island, N.Y., and his unusual path to training. After serving in Vietnam with the Marines, he meant to go to Hawaii to become a surfer but was waylaid by a racetrack job in Northern California.

Noting that even good trainers lose 80% of the time, Shirreffs said: “You have to enjoy your day-to-day with the horses, because that’s where most of the pleasure is going to be.”

Always up to date, with phone- and camera-equipped Meta “smart” glasses and colorful HOKA sneakers, and seemingly energetic when he arrived at his barn at 4:20 each morning, Shirreffs surprised many people when he said he was 80.

Santa Anita said in a statement: “Santa Anita Park 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 past by the statue of John’s greatest trainee, the wonderful mare Zenyatta.”

Survivors include Shirreffs’ wife, Dottie Ingordo.