By Dick Jerardi
Witty broke his maiden at Parx on Oct 25, 2021. He won the Pennsylvania Nursery at Parx in his next start. After winning the Ben’s Cat Saturday at Laurel, the now 7-year-old Pennsylvania bred, co-owned, trained and bred by Elizabeth Merryman, went past the magical $1 million mark in career earnings with his 13th career victory in 36 starts, seven wins on dirt and six on grass.
Witty’s win continued a saga that Merryman, who lives on Buffalo Run Ranch in Chester County with her husband Bill Rubin, could never have envisioned when she agreed to take on a horse on the recommendation of her friend Kim Brette after the filly’s racing career ended due to injury 10 years ago.
“At the time, I had one mare that was really difficult to get in foal,” Merryman said. “She had had colic surgery. She was more of a sentimental mare, she was like the fifth generation of my parents. I always like breeding a mare or two every year.”
Merryman described Brette, who used to gallop for her, as someone who “just has a great eye for a horse and just instinctually an incredible horse person.”
Brette was working for a vet in Florida at the time and told Merryman about a friend’s horse who might make for a really nice broodmare. The friend did not want the expense of trying to get the horse back to the races after her injury so she was hoping to find her a good home and was willing to give her away as a riding horse or a broodmare
Zeezee Zoomzoom was purchased for $80,000 as a yearling and then $135,000 as a 2-year-old. She broke her maiden at Saratoga the next year. She raced 10 times with one win, two seconds, a third and earnings of $82,342.
“I looked up her pedigree and she was out of a nice mare,” Merryman said. “She had broken her maiden at Saratoga. I’m like I don’t train many that can do that or any at the time. She sold for a fair amount at a 2-year-old sale. I’m like okay she must have some speed, she must have decent conformation. She’d be apt to throw a pretty good looking baby if she sold well herself. Congrats is a great broodmare sire…I was like ‘okay, I’m going to take this filly sight unseen from Florida, ship her to Kentucky and breed her and see what we get.'”
What she got was an ongoing horse racing miracle. Zeezee Zoomzoom was just sort of “free.” Merryman had to pay the van bill from Florida to Kentucky, the $10,000 stud fee to breed her to Mizzen Mast, the board bill in Kentucky and then the van bill back home where she eventually foaled a Pa. bred that would be named Caravel, a filly that would eventually win 15 races, including 13 stakes and the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at 42-1.
Zeezee Zoomzoom was bred to Great Notion and that foal would be named Witty.
“He’s just amazing,” Merryman said. “He’s such a beautiful horse. He’s so much fun to train. Our whole crew just loves him. He’s got a really, really strong personality. He’s just delightful.”
Merryman, who trains her horses at Fair Hill, pointed out that Witty has now won races for six consecutive years. Seven of Witty’s first 16 starts were at Parx, including runs in the Gallant Bob and Smarty Jones. He has now won nine stakes and a cool $1,007,882.
All told, that “free” filly’s foals have raced 124 times, with 37 wins, 25 seconds, 12 thirds and earnings of $3.4 million.
“It’s pretty unbelievable,” Merryman said when asked about having two millionaires from her mare. “It’s like winning the lottery.”
And the on track exploits are not remotely it. Zeezee Zoomzoom had so obviously become a great broodmare that Merryman swung for the fences a few years ago and paid the big stud fee to get her to top sire Justify. Last August at Saratoga, that yearling colt sold for $1.4 million.
“It was amazing, but it wasn’t surprising to me,” Merryman said of that August 2025 night at the Saratoga yearling sale. “I thought he was the whole package. He was shown 190 times at Saratoga and showed every single time the same way. He had plenty of the right people on him and plenty of vetting. He was the ultimate Saratoga type horse. He handled it great…He was one of the greatest movers I have even seen in my life.”
That colt, named Caesar, is now in training with Brad Cox working at Keeneland toward his first start.
The best news of all is that Zeezee Zoomzoom, now 14, is still on the farm in Chester County. She has a yearling by Nyquist that is in the Keeneland September sale, but Merryman said “I am getting cold feet.”
Zeezee Zoomzoom did not have a foal this year, but is in foal to Vekoma so that gift horse is definitely not finishing giving gifts.
Caravel was the first foal and, so far at least the best one with nearly $2 million in earnings and that BC win. What looked like it might be an unhappy story eventually ended with a happy ending.
Merryman was diagnosed with breast cancer when Caravel was running really well in 2021, but because of the kind of cancer she had she was not going to be able to train horses for at least a year. So she sold three quarters of Caravel to Bobby Flay and Caravel went to Graham Motion’s barn. Caravel was eventually sold at the 2021 Night of the Stars sale.
“She was the most incredible thing,” Merryman said. “I sounded so stupid, but I kept telling everybody I’m just this dumb little girl trainer at Fair Hill, but this is a Breeders’ Cup horse. This horse is a freak of nature. Everybody was like ‘sure, she is.'”
Merryman believed so much in Caravel that she tried to buy her back before the 2021 sale. The price got too high.
“I just remember being so excited when I learned that she was going to go to Brad Cox and not be retired,” Merryman said. “I just thought she needs to prove me right, needs to prove it.”
Well, she proved it with seven stakes wins for Cox. Merryman was at Keeneland for that Breeders’ Cup win in the clinching moment that proved her so right and clinched the value for Zeezee Zoomzoom forever. So the ending, as circuitous as it was, turned out just fine. As did the cancer treatment.
“All good,” Lizzie Merryman said.
