Zee Zee Top

Zee Zee Top, a British Thoroughbred racehorse and broodmare who became one of the standard bearers of Hampshire's Meon Valley Stud, has died at the age of 27. The Racing Post reported that she died on the morning of Thursday 12 November 2026, with Meon Valley confirming the news. She had been enjoying her retirement at the stud, where she lived for many years after her breeding career ended.

Born on 21 April 1999, Zee Zee Top was bred by the Hampshire based Meon Valley Stud and sent into training with Sir Michael Stoute at Newmarket. She was a dark bay mare with no white markings, sired by the champion Zafonic out of the outstanding broodmare Colorspin, herself the winner of the 1986 Irish Oaks. Zee Zee Top did not appear on a racecourse until the autumn of her three year old season, when she won her debut race at Pontefract before finishing second in the Severals Stakes at Newmarket.

Her finest form came the following year. She won the Middleton Stakes at York and was placed in both the Pretty Polly Stakes and the Group 1 Nassau Stakes. Her defining performance came on her final start, in October 2003, when she produced a strong late run under Kieren Fallon to win the Group 1 Prix de l'Opera at Longchamp in a tight finish, edging out Yesterday and Bright Sky. That victory closed out her racing career and sent her to stud with the status of a Group 1 winner.

As a broodmare, Zee Zee Top became one of the most important mares in the Meon Valley Stud's broodmare band. She produced at least eleven foals, among them the dual Group 1 winner Izzi Top, who won the Pretty Polly Stakes and the Prix Jean Romanet, and Jazzi Top, who won the Prix de la Nonette and was runner up in the Prix de l'Opera, the same race her dam had won. Other winning offspring included Rock N Roll Ransom, Dance Rock and Emaraaty, extending a family line that traced back to the stud's foundation mares.

Announcing her death, Meon Valley's managing partner Mark Weinfeld said that she had enjoyed a happy retirement for the past seven years and had provided much pleasure and enjoyment during her lifetime. Tributes from within British and Irish racing and breeding circles followed quickly, recalling her as a mare who combined top class racecourse ability with lasting success at stud, and whose descendants continued to compete at the highest level long after her own racing days ended.