Bernyatta: The World's Newest Power Couple

The world loves a good power couple. Especially when both partners are sublimely talented and renowned. Especially when royalty is involved. Throw in good looks, fast times, and the possibility of blessed offspring and pretty soon you are way beyond Brangelina or even Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton on the celebrity scale.

Now, finally, at last, to their unbridled glee and anticipation, millions of horse lovers and horse racing fans around the world have their own royal mating to follow. Here, from Joe Drape in Wednesday's New York Times:

The great racemare Zenyatta has her first date in the breeding shed booked: The lucky stallion is Bernardini, who was the champion 3-year-old in 2006, and whose first crop of runners last year produced the most graded stakes winners among freshman sires.

In the horsey world, this is huge news. Zenyatta is perhaps the greatest mare ever to have raced. Her pregnancy, if it comes, will likely be the most closely-followed in Thoroughbred history. And the resulting foal, if it comes, will be the most famous weanling ever. If you think Prince William was cute as a boy, and I know you do, just wait until you see this little one running around a paddock in Kentucky in a few years.

I am not too young to have forgotten Ruffian, the Zenyatta of her age, before her life was tragically cut short. Ruffian's death deprived the world of her foals and the promise they would have held. But Zenytta's move toward maternity gives millions of her admirers at least one more chance at witnessing the birth, literally, of a new royal line in the Sport of Kings. So move over, all you tiresome Windsors; stand aside, Barack and Michelle, there is a new couple in town. And henceforth its name, officially, is Bernyatta.