Six years ago on a sunny May afternoon, Barry and Joni Butzow trudged through the Churchill Downs homestretch beside their horse, with their friends in tow, as they completed the walkover all runners make for the Kentucky Derby. The scene was perfect, except for one thing: it wasn't the first Saturday in May. This was Race 5, a $25,000 claimer, on a regular Tuesday afternoon.
And who was the special horse Barry and Joni accompanied to the paddock that day? None other than Papa's Forest, the dam of the Butzows' Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1) contender Zozos .
"I think it was an omen," Barry Butzow said, "because now we're back at Churchill Downs with her son and we're going to do the Derby walk again with him."
The Butzows are well aware that they could become just the second Minnesota-based connections to win the Kentucky Derby, with that original honor belonging to the late Frances Genter, whose Unbridled captured a legendary edition of the Run for the Roses in 1990. During the running of that race, trainer Carl Nafzger voiced out a play-by-play to the diminutive Genter, which was caught on camera by television crews. The emotion-laden clip was broadcast around the world following Unbridled's victory.
"Who doesn't know that clip?" said Butzow. "It's the greatest clip ever recorded for horse racing when Carl Nafzger is sitting there going, 'He's the winner, he's the winner! You've won the Kentucky Derby, Mrs. Genter!' It's played about a hundred times during Derby week."
The Minnesota natives have been involved with horse racing since going in on a horse with a "gazillion other people" at their local Canterbury Park racetrack in 1985.
"That was the year Canterbury opened," said Butzow. "Me and a bunch of goofy friends of mine decided it would be cool to go in on a racehorse because it was the new thing in town. The horse ended up winning its first race ever. Then five of us turned around and bought two more horses and those two also went and won their first race. So then we were really in trouble. I was hooked."
The Butzows have remained strong supporters of Canterbury Park through the years and although their 11 broodmares currently reside at Woodline Farms in Paris, Ky., they continue to purchase Minnesota-breds every year so they can watch their charges run live during the 65-day race meet.
"If it weren't for Canterbury we probably wouldn't still be in racing," said Butzow, who was inducted into the Canterbury Park Hall of Fame in 2019. "We love racing here. You can't travel to see them all race all the time and this is in our backyard. Minnesota got us started and we try to give back to them. We backed off a bit because there was uncertainty with the purse structures there, but hopefully after this year everything will be back on track and we can start breeding in Minnesota again."
Joni was an active participant in the Don MacBeth Memorial Jockey Fund before that program, a precursor to the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, shut down in 2011. The fundraiser, which was held at tracks around the country, raised money for injured and retired jockeys.
"Joni was very involved with the charity for a number of years. It was great, the whole Canterbury community was involved," said Butzow. "At one point, Little Canterbury was raising more money for the fund than big tracks like Santa Anita Park and Belmont Park."
The Butzows later dipped their toes in the breeding pool when they became partners with Dion and Kathy Kissoon, who operated a breeding farm in Minnesota. Eventually, the Butzows began traveling to the Keeneland sales and purchasing their own horses. After retiring a handful of fillies that had gone on to attain reasonable success on the racetrack, they made the decision to begin breeding mares of their own.
Butzow is quick to credit Beau Lane, owner of Woodline Farm, for aiding in his segue to the breeding business.
"Beau is a heck of a horseman," he said. "We work together on breeding and trying to figure out stallions for my mares. There's a huge process in selecting the right stallion."
Munnings , the sire of Zozos, was a stallion that appealed to both Butzow and Lane.
"I like Munnings; I think he produces racehorses," added Butzow. "Not necessarily champions, but solid racehorses. He gets horses to the racetrack."
Lane particularly liked the cross of Munnings to Papa's Forest, a daughter of second-leading broodmare sire Forestry. The 12-year-old mare, an earner of more than $230,000 on the racetrack, survived a life-threatening ordeal when losing her next foal after Zozos.
"That mare is so tough," said Lane. "She tore her uterus but we repaired it and now she's in foal (to Candy Ride) and doing fine. To go through what she went through and come out of it like she did, it's very unusual. Not many mares can do that.
"She's also the first mare at the fence who wants a peppermint when you see her. She's a real joy to be around and I'm so glad Barry and Joni have her."
From the beginning, Zozos was a well-built and well-mannered individual that impressed his early handlers, who all noted the colt's willing and calm nature.
"He definitely took his mother's disposition," said Lane. "She doesn't let anything bother her and he doesn't either."
Despite his laid-back demeanor, Zozos displayed his mother's toughness while out in the field with the other colts as well.
"(Zozos) was never common, would never rear up or strike at you; he was all business but he wasn't a wuss out there in the field with the others," said Lane. "He never got in trouble, but the other horses would never mess with him. I love a horse like that."
The bay colt with the distinctive jagged white blaze on his face received early lessons from Tony and Peggy Costanzo at their private training center in Ocala, Fla. That couple was immediately fond of the friendly Zozos and expressed the colt's budding ability to the Butzows.
"Last year Tony and Peggy sold their farm," said Butzow. "We were upset because we've been sending our babies to them for years to break but we don't hold it against them, as we invited them, of course, to the Derby. They did a great job with Zozos. Tony and Peggy are on their way up for the race as well as everyone who helped foal him at Woodline."
Zozos' namesake is a seaside restaurant called ZoZo's on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The Butzows own a vacation home in St. John and frequent the John Ferrigno-owned restaurant while visiting the island.
"One day Joni and I were sitting there at the restaurant struggling to think up names for our recent crop of babies," said Butzow. "I really don't know how people go about naming 40 or 50 horses; we have enough trouble trying to name five of them. I asked John, 'Hey, what do you think if we named one Zozos after the restaurant? The name has a classy little kick to it. Could we name the horse after your restaurant?' And so we did."
Ferrigno, a passionate fan of horse racing, is one of Zozos' most avid followers.
"Him and his wife and kids are all flying in from St. John," said Butzow. "Of all the people, including ourselves, this guy is the most excited about Zozos being in the Derby. I almost feel sorry for their customers because when they walk in he's telling everyone at the counter, 'Oh, by the way, did you know I have a horse running in the Kentucky Derby?' He's beyond excited."
Zozos was part of a group of eight Butzow homebreds that were sent to trainer Brad Cox.
"I've been training for (Barry) for a year now," said Cox. "In the short time we've been working together we've had a good run. Besides Zozos he's had a filly, Promises to Dance, and a few others that have broken their maidens. They are all good and useful horses."
Cox noted that Zozos was a horse that showed the Eclipse Award-winning conditioner from the get-go of his raw talent. Zozos, who shined in his morning workouts as a 2-year-old, was preparing for his first race in October when he suffered a small setback with his foot that required the hoof wall to grow out before continuing his training. Joining Cox's string at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots over the winter, the colt began to thrive in Louisiana and made his long-awaited debut Jan. 23 in a six-furlong maiden special weight on the dirt.
"I remember calling Barry before his debut; he was in the Virgin Islands and I told him I really liked (Zozos) and thought he was a horse that could win first time out," recalled Cox. "Funny enough, I think he was actually having dinner at ZoZo's restaurant."
Racing greenly on his left lead down the stretch, Zozos nonetheless wore down the leaders late to graduate by a half-length. It was his next performance, however, a two-turn allowance optional claiming contest at Oaklawn Park Feb. 11, that showcased the colt's superstar potential.
Zozos tracked the pacesetter in second position through six furlongs before exploding away from the field at the top of the lane, cruising to the wire a 10 1/4-length winner that immediately placed him as a horse to watch on everyone's Kentucky Derby lists.
"After that race, Brad just tells us, 'You know, I think we need to take one big swing.' So we were deciding between the Louisiana Derby, Blue Grass (G1), and Arkansas Derby (G1). One of the reasons we picked the Louisiana Derby was the 1 3/16 (miles) to see if he could get the Derby distance (of 1 1/4 miles). And so we went to the Louisiana Derby."
Inheriting the lead in the March 26 Twinspires.com Louisiana Derby (G2), Zozos whistled through fractions of :23.27, :47.35, and 1:11.69, showing the way down the lane before the more seasoned Epicenter swept by him at the three-sixteenths pole, finishing 2 1/2 lengths ahead of Zozos at the line. Zozos, ridden by Florent Geroux, gamely held on for second, another two lengths in front of Pioneer of Medina. The effort punched his ticket to the Kentucky Derby.
"Since he had been on the lead the whole race, I think it surprised him when Epicenter went by," said Butzow. "He re-engaged as soon as Epicenter went by, so who knows. He didn't seem to be too affected by the distance. You don't know if any one of the 20 can go a mile and a quarter because they've never done it. I'm more worried about me being a 30-year smoker walking from the barn area all the way to the paddock, to be honest."
As expected of the easy-going and intelligent colt, Zozos has been handling the change of scenery at Churchill Downs with aplomb and has impressed his connections and onlookers with his swift breezes in the morning. On the final Saturday before the Derby, the colt drilled six furlongs in 1:11 2/ 5 in company with Al Gold's Arkansas Derby winner Cyberknife , a fellow Cox trainee.
"Zozos is going to be less nervous than Joni and myself in the paddock before the Derby, I'm pretty sure," Butzow said.
"(The Butzows) are wonderful people," said Lane. "They have bought and bred horses for years looking for that big horse. They are the kind of people we need in this industry. I guarantee on Saturday that colt will come running."
The lightly raced Zozos will be making just his fourth career start in the Kentucky Derby, giving the Butzows an experience they never could have predicted when they bought in on a horse with a gaggle of friends at Canterbury Park 37 years ago.
"It's unbelievable," said Butzow. "It's obviously something you'd never expect, ever, ever, ever. In all my years of doing this I don't think I ever had a horse that was born and I immediately thought, 'Oh, this is going to be my Derby horse.' It still doesn't feel real and I don't think it will until we're there (in Kentucky) and walking up for the race."
