Zenyatta Lounge Now Serving Workers at Santa Anita Park

In these unsettling days of turmoil that includes the Arizona shooting rampage, here is an uplifting story about women helping women. And it involves a very famous female athlete.

A couple of months ago, Aase Headley and Haydee Vienna, the wives of prominent Arcadia horse trainers Bruce Headley and Darrell Vienna, set out on a mission to improve the lives of the women backstretch workers at .

Backstretch is a generic term for the stable and barn area at a racetrack where horses are housed because it is often across the track from the grandstands. At Santa Anita, the stables and barns are located west of the grandstand area, but it is still called the backstretch.

Backstretch workers include grooms and hotwalkers who are provided with room and board.  Grooms are the horses’ caretakers, and, as the name implies, hotwalkers walk the horses in the stable area. About a quarter of the grooms and hotwalkers at Santa Anita, or roughly 60, are women.

Generally, their lives are pretty bleak. They work, sleep in 12x12 tack rooms, kill time and keep to themselves. Most of them only speak Spanish.

But that’s changing, thanks to Aase Headley and Haydee Vienna, who came up with the idea of creating a women’s-only lounge for the female grooms, hotwalkers, exercise riders and other licensed personnel who live or work in the stable area.

Of course, as with anything, there was the issue of money. They had the backing of the California Thoroughbred Trainers, commonly referred to as the CTT. Darrell Vienna is the Southern California vice president of the CTT.

But they needed more.

The next step was going to Dottie Ingordo Shirreffs, the wife of Arcadia trainer John Shirreffs. Dottie is the racing manager for Jerry and Ann Moss, and here’s where that famous female athlete comes into play.

The Mosses own the great racehorse Zenyatta, who won all 19 of her first 19 races before barely losing the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the Super Bowl of horse racing, and then being retired. It was one of the greatest careers ever by a racehorse, male or female.

Zenyatta is now at the Three Chimneys Farm in Kentucky where the plan is for her to produce baby horses that grow up to be champions.

Jerry Moss made a fortune in the music business after he and Herb Alpert co-founded the legendary A&M record label.

When Dottie Shirreffs went to the Mosses and told them about the plans for a women’s-only lounge at Santa Anita, they were more than happy to make a generous donation. And the CTT matched it.

Santa Anita provided the room, built a new private entrance and supplied carpentry work and electrical wiring. The room is located adjacent to the backstretch recreation hall, which is basically just a large room with table and chairs and a few arcade games. It’s a cavernous place that does not appeal to women.

The new, appropriately named Zenyatta Lounge, which officially opened Dec. 19, is fully furnished, has a flat-screen TV, another TV monitor, a computer, a sewing machine, and books in both Spanish and English. It is open daily from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

On the wall are many photos of Zenyatta, provided by Rayetta Burr of Benoit and Associates, the official track photographer in Southern California. The company was created by the late Bob Benoit.

But this story doesn’t end with the opening of the lounge.

There are plans for weekly English and computer classes and more. The women will also be taught such mundane things as how to clip coupons and use them.

Counseling services will be offered either through the track chaplain or the Winners Foundation. And if a donor or donors can be found, Headley and Vienna hope to have monthly outings where the women are taken out to dinner at a local restaurant.

At the opening, hair and makeup specialist Beatriz Gonzalez provided facials, makeup and other services. Beatriz is the niece of Rosie Ybarra, who has been serving breakfast at Santa Anita’s Clockers’ Corner for nearly 20 years. Beatriz just began working with longtime backstretch barber Chris Alpin, who said she also hopes to get involved. And as an avid photographer, she has photos she would like to donate as well.

On Dec. 23, there was a gift exchange, and some 30 women took part. “And just about everyone stayed to help clean up,” Headley said. “They’ve taken a lot of pride in this.”

Headley also said she recently ran into one of the women at a drug store and the woman told her, “I didn’t really have any friends at the track. I just worked.” The woman then told her she came to the opening and met many nice people.

“She finally feels like she now has some friends she can talk to,” Headley said. “She told me she’s much happier now.”