Zenyatta was honoured as North America’s 2010 Horse of the Year at the 40th Eclipse Awards dinner in Miami on Monday night.  The Street Cry mare received 128 first-place votes, edging out Breeders’ Cup Classic winner Blame who polled 102 votes.

Blame inflicted the only defeat on Zenyatta in a 20 start career in the G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Churchill Downs in November.

Zenyatta was runner-up in the 2008 and 2009 Horse of the Year awards.  Her loss last year to Rachel Alexandra was a controversial decision but that was forgotten when owner Jerry Moss collected the award last night.

It’s only the second time in history that female runners have been honoured as Horse of the Year in consecutive years.  The only other time it happened was with Twilight Tear (1944) and Busher (1945).

Zenyatta also joined fellow Horse of the Year Azeri as the only three-time Champion Older Mare.  She heads to the breeding shed with a 20: 19-1-0 mark and earnings of $7.30 million making her the top-earning mare in North American history.

The Eclipse Awards winners, in each category, were:
2YO Male: Uncle Mo
2YO Filly:  Awesome Feather
3YO Male:  Lookin At Lucky
3YO Filly:  Blind Luck
Older Male:  Blame
Older Female: Zenyatta
Female Sprinter: Dubai Majesty
Male Sprinter:  Big Drama
Male Turf Horse: Gio Ponti
Female Turf Horse: Goldikova
Steeplechase Horse: Slip Away
Owner: WinStar Farm
Breeder:  Adena Springs
Jockey: Ramon Dominguez
Apprenctive jockey: Omar Moreno
Trainer: Todd Pletcher