Zenyatta’s younger half-brother Souper Spectacular continued his rise up the ranks with his second win at Keeneland on Sunday.  

Souper Spectacular (3c Giant’s Causeway – Vertigineux by Kris S.) was racing for the fourth time for Live Oak Plantation.  He had been unplaced at Belmont and Monmouth Park before breaking through at Saratoga on September 4.

The chestnut colt was caught three wide under John Velazquez at Keeneland but grabbed a narrow advantage entering the straight and then pulled clear to score by 1.5 lengths over 1800m on turf.

Souper Spectacular was a $1.15 million buy at the 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale.  

“I didn’t get him until earlier this year and he was just a big kid,” trainer Seth Benzel said.  “He’s just coming into himself now and I can really see why Zenyatta didn’t start until late in her three-year-old career because this horse is much the same.”

Benzel has more than 40 horses in work split between Saratoga and Belmont.  He is a former assistant to Eclipse Award-winning trainer Todd Pletcher before going out on his own in May 2008.

Zenyatta (Street Cry) increased her perfect record to 19 from 19 when winning the G1 Lady’s Secret Stakes at Hollywood Park on October 2.  She is poised to bow out of racing in a blaze of glory in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs next month.

Her dam Vertigineux has a yearling filly by Bernardini and a filly foal by Henrythenavigator.