Mourners Gather to Honor John Shirreffs, Trainer of Zenyatta and Giacomo

John Alexander Shirreffs Jr., whose death on Feb. 12 left a barn full of horses and a racing community stunned, was remembered by friends and colleagues at services held at the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia. They gathered under a banner proclaiming 2026 the Jubilee Year of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals, and wrestled with the practical question his sudden passing raises: who will carry forward the patient training that produced Zenyatta and Giacomo?

On Racing / By Jay Hovdey / Yesterday, 7:45 PM

The façade banner read in full that 2026 was the Jubilee Year of St. Francis, founder of the Franciscan order of Catholic priests and more commonly revered as the patron saint of animals. Inside the church, beneath the pine beams of the towering ceiling, nearly all of the 68 polished pews were occupied by the friends and family of John Alexander Shirreffs Jr., whose death on Feb. 12 struck at the very heart of the Thoroughbred racing community. As the casket rested near the church altar, the mission pastor conducted a simple service that included the 23rd Psalm and a reading from, what else, the Gospel of John.

"John A. Shirreffs, the trainer best known for guiding Zenyatta to her Hall of Fame career and saddling Giacomo to an improbable 50-1 victory in the 2005 Kentucky Derby, was remembered by a wide cross-section of the racing community at services held at the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia following" the gathering underlined both his headline horses and the depth of those who came to pay respects. Attendees named in the service included Art Sherman, Tom Halpenny, Jenine Sahadi, Ron Ellis, Patrick Gallagher, Karen Headley, Derek Lawson, Rick Hammerle, Brice Blanc, Jon Lindo, Kurt Hoover, Juan Leyva, Larry Damore and Bruno DeBerdt.

Art Sherman, who has trained top runners himself, put Shirreffs' patience into racing terms many in the room understood. “When I was training up north, John sometimes would send me horses he had for Ann and Jerry Moss,” Art Sherman said. “They'd be 4-, 5-year-old maidens, big, strong things. They'd maybe done nothing more than bucked shins, but John would give them a year. Who does that? We'd break their maidens right off, then go on and win a bunch of stakes.” Tom Halpenny, identified as Shirreffs’ farrier, represented the stable-side familiarity of the trainer who gave horses time to develop.

Hovdey’s account captured both grief and a practical optimism: “They came because John Shirreffs was that kind of friend, to both man and beast, and they embraced his history as familiar ground.” He added that “his sudden death at the age of 80 felt like a cheat when he was still so vital, and there was a barn full of horses still benefitting from his touch. Maybe the next Giacomo, the next Tiago, another Life Is Sweet. Maybe even the next Zenyatta.”

The service emphasized continuity as much as remembrance. With Zenyatta enshrined in the Hall of Fame and Giacomo forever linked to the 2005 Kentucky Derby upset at 50-1, Shirreffs' legacy will be measured by the horses still training in the barn and by the trainers, farriers and owners who shared the pews. “A stranger wandering into the church nave might have guessed that someone of great importance was being celebrated, but wonder at the world in which they moved.” That wonder, and the practical stewardship of Shirreffs’ remaining horses, now falls to those same friends and colleagues who filled those 68 polished pews.