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Zaaki |
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Lord Hybrow
Champion Joined: 05 Jul 2015 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 6643 |
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Superb today winning the ASM.
Can’t wait for the QE Stks Zaaki vs VE vs Anamoe vs Montefelia
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Pardon_My_Dust
Champion Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Status: Offline Points: 9124 |
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Throw in Think It Over if the track isn't heavy.
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Afros
Champion Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Status: Offline Points: 15306 |
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It must be a thrill having a horse to win any race as dominantly as that, let alone in a $5 million race.
I agree with Lord Hybrow, bring on the Queen Elizabeth!
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djebel
Premium Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Status: Offline Points: 53960 |
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Neasham reveals overseas dream for ZaakiZaaki’s trainer Annabel Neasham has an overseas campaign in the back of her mind for the All-Star Mile winner. Picture : Racing Photos via Getty Images. 0 Comments A Cox Plate would be the priority but trainer Annabel Neasham would love to have a crack at overseas races with brilliant All-Star Mile winner Zaaki. Zaaki started his career in England, where he won twice at Group 3 level and placed in Group 2 company, before becoming one of Australia’s best gallopers under Neasham’s care. The six-year-old posted his seventh win in 11 Australian starts in last Saturday’s All-Star Mile at Flemington with the $2.25m winner’s cheque taking his local earnings to more than $5.7m. Neasham said she had plans to take Zaaki to Hong Kong for the QEII Cup (2000m) after next month’s Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick. However, Hong Kong’s latest Covid-19 crisis put paid to those plans. “I was hoping to take him to Hong Kong for that race, the Queen Elizabeth Cup, which I think is three weeks after the Queen Elizabeth Stakes,” Neasham said. “We got him vaccinated for that but that’s not going to be happening.” Neasham said she would love to take Zaaki back to England to race during the Royal Ascot carnival mid-year. Zaaki’s All-Star Mile win was the import’s seventh from 11 starts in Australia and took his earnings to more than $5.7m. Picture: Racing Photos via Getty Images. But erasing the disappointment of Zaaki’s race-morning scratching from the Cox Plate is equally crucial for connections. “I’d love to take him back over to Royal Ascot,” Neasham said. “But I’d also love to win the Cox Plate with him because it was devastating what happened last year. “Whether we can do England and come back for a Cox Plate, I don’t know. “We could win a Cox Plate with him and go overseas next year.” European observers decry the standard of Australian weight-for-age and staying races. But Neasham said criticism of the local scene would not stop her from taking Zaaki to England to race if circumstances allow. “I don’t understand or get into all the ratings enough but I notice the Timeform ratings have been excellent,” Neasham said. “I just know that in this country, we’ve got great racing and great prizemoney. “I’m sure if the English want to dumb it down, they can. I don’t listen to any of that, I just enjoy having this horse and winning races with him.” |
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reductio ad absurdum
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Lord Hybrow
Champion Joined: 05 Jul 2015 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 6643 |
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Burst through the $7m prize money mark with the win in the Hollindale Cup at Southport today.
Incredibly good body of work in 3 preparations over the past 12 months: 2021 Hollindale Cup 2021 Doomben Cup 2021 Q22 Stks 2021 Tramway Stakes 2021 Underwood Stks 2021 Mackinnon Stks 2022 All Star Mile 2022 Hollindale Cup That’s some CV he’s built up & likely to add further wins in 2022. |
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Pardon_My_Dust
Champion Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Status: Offline Points: 9124 |
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Didn't win like the good thing we thought he was though. I wonder if he really relishes the heavy tracks I'm not sure he enjoys them too much TBH.
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Gay3
Moderator Group Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Location: Miners Rest Status: Offline Points: 51829 |
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Stable spokesman on RSN this morning said it's definitely not his preferred surface, he's just a true professional. |
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Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
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Gay3
Moderator Group Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Location: Miners Rest Status: Offline Points: 51829 |
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Zaaki gives J-Mac wild ride in Hollindale defenceHe was playing up for the cameras on Friday, by Saturday not much had changed with James McDonald wishing he had a seatbelt to strap himself in for the ride on a boisterous Zaaki in the Group 2 Hollindale Stakes (1800m). The king of Queensland was back to claim his Hollindale Stakes crown, and while it didn’t go all to plan, Zaaki ($1.40) left punters in no doubt as to his rock star status. Pre-race, trainer Annabel Neasham commented on Zaaki’s freshness, which left McDonald’s biggest task for the day staying on the gelding on the way to the gates. It proved to be correct, with the seven-year-old bucking his way out of the mounting yard, leaving McDonald in for a wild ride.
“He’s King Kong and he knows it, I just wish there was a seatbelt I could use,” McDonald said. “I knew the hardest part was going to be getting on him and getting him to the barriers.” It was billed as a match race between Zaaki and up and comer Ayrton, but it proved to be no contest as Ayrton dropped out at the top of the straight after jockey Hugh Bowman served it up to McDonald on the turn. In the end, it was the Chris Waller-trained duo of Polly Grey ($11) and Kukeracha ($41) going toe-to-toe with the champ. “It was a long way from home, I thought we were in some strife and I said to myself ‘I’m not happy here’ but he is a superstar. I hope he doesn’t have to see track conditions like it again,” McDonald said. Incredibly, McDonald credited a white bird for saving a tearaway Zaaki mid-race. “He popped away OK and he glided through the first furlong well, then he copped a bump from the horse outside him, it spurred him on a bit, which wasn’t necessary,” he said. “This is going to sound funny, a white bird crossed the track and he baulked at it, it pulled him up for two furlongs. It was a funny thing for him to shy at, but it worked in our favour because if he kept going at that speed, I wouldn’t have been going anywhere.” Ultimately, Ayrton was found to be displaying mild lameness post-race, leaving question marks over his Doomben Cup campaign. Zaaki’s connections could have had top hats and tails on at Royal Ascot, instead they opted to campaign on the glitter strip, but the sodden Gold Coast track could have been mistaken for one served up in England. Even after racing on heavy tracks throughout the Sydney autumn, McDonald said Saturday’s track at the Gold Coast was a different beast all together. “Sydney tracks are really loose, when they get rain, they go to pieces, so horses with a high cruising speed and a good action go through it,” he said. “ … Look at the stewards reports for lost shoes, it is that gluey, good horses find it very hard, it is so gluey and deep.“It is beautiful and safe but it’s not to his liking, he was working and working and working so he never got a rest, the performance was better than it looked. It puts Neasham’s superstar on track for the $200,000 “Zaaki bonus”, where he is now a $1.65 favourite for the $1m Doomben Cup (2000m) in a fortnight’s time. A clear $7.50 second favourite, Bowman said Ayrton’s performance raised question marks over his ability to see out a staying trip. “Put it this way, to get out over any further distance than today he would have to relax a lot better than he did today,” Bowman said. “But having said that the track is very heavy today so it’s hard to be overly critical of any horse.” |
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Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
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Pardon_My_Dust
Champion Joined: 01 Dec 2009 Status: Offline Points: 9124 |
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Fair dinkum as if Ayrton who beat Streets of Avalon and Excelida last start was going to sit outside Zaaki and beat him.
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djebel
Premium Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Status: Offline Points: 53960 |
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Ayrton raced a little keen.
When question in relation to the below market expectation performance jockey H Bowman reported that the gelding over raced on its wrong leg during the middle stages of the event which in his opinion was the major contributing factor to the poor performance. A post-race veterinary examination revealed the gelding to be mildly lame in the near-foreleg. The trainer’s representative for the Price/Kent jnr stable was advised they would be required to obtain a veterinary certificate for the gelding prior to it next racing
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reductio ad absurdum
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Lord Hybrow
Champion Joined: 05 Jul 2015 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 6643 |
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Didn’t offer much fight in the Doomben Cup, barely clinging onto 3rd placing.
What to we make of the run? His last 2 starts were on bog tracks, so perhaps those efforts took its toll & there was no ping in his legs today? Q22 run is probably doubtful now, so I guess we’ll see him again in the Spring.
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Shawy38
Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Status: Online Points: 17265 |
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Annabel mentioned post race he will be going to the paddock now. Spring goal Cox Plate.
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Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing
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JudgeHolden
Champion Joined: 16 Apr 2011 Status: Offline Points: 11716 |
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Average French horse beats average French horse. Australian horse racing in a nutshell right there.
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JudgeHolden
Champion Joined: 16 Apr 2011 Status: Offline Points: 11716 |
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VOYAGER
Champion Joined: 04 Aug 2007 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 18699 |
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I know they blamed the gluey surface last start but for Polly Grey and Kukeracha to make good ground off him late he looked like a tired horse.
Good spell and back for Melbourne in the spring!
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Remember, it might take intelligence to be smart , but it takes experience to be wise
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Second Chance
Champion Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Status: Offline Points: 45321 |
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Though insufficient time for a "good spell" one would've thought Voyager.
Have been away a few days so the following will almost certainly have already been expressed, however irrespective of the surface a peak of fitness Zaaki would surely have beaten that lot by many, many panels.
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Second Chance
Champion Joined: 02 Dec 2007 Status: Offline Points: 45321 |
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ps the Doomben Cup run as it is when most higher class gallopers are just returning to work following a post Melb/Syd campaign spell, has for years been contested and won by 3rd graders, Zaaki and just a few excepted, as the following suggests.
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Jamal
Champion Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Status: Offline Points: 8659 |
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I've been saying it for a while now. No wait...you and me both have been saying it for a while. But as we know...most people on here are in denial.
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Jamal
Champion Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Status: Offline Points: 8659 |
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I saw that tweet. Spot on. Plus as you and I both know? There are plenty of the Zaaki and State of Rest type horses in Europe that come to Australia and win Group 1s at 1600m+. Very sad for Australian racing mate.
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Afros
Champion Joined: 14 Jan 2009 Status: Offline Points: 15306 |
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Do you mean State of Rest, who has won a G1 in both the USA and France as well as the Cox Plate, or Zaaki, who while not a G1 winner in Europe, was considered good enough to take to Hong Kong for the Hong Kong Mile?
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kiwi88
Champion Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Status: Offline Points: 1493 |
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Seemed a lot to ask of the horse. All Star Mile, QE, then onto the Brisbane carnival. Hard to peak again and again at this level.
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Balciano
Champion Joined: 09 Nov 2016 Status: Offline Points: 860 |
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The Track was updated to a Good 3 later in the program, he ran a similarly disappointing race in the Caulfield Stakes last Spring on a very firm surface...maybe a combination of this, and the long campaign took it's toll?
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Stainvita
Champion Joined: 10 Dec 2014 Location: Sydney Status: Offline Points: 1044 |
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No mention of the ride by Macdonald, used Zaaki up early and was caught wide, then later on was also wide, not one of his better rides given it was a Group 1
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If your hands aren't shaking you haven't put enough on.
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Carioca
Champion Joined: 13 Nov 2015 Status: Offline Points: 21703 |
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When it's all said and done , a 4s on chance like this bloke should have been a walk in the park , raced like a tired horse to me with no kick left , maybe Randwick took out what was there , just my take on it .
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kiwi88
Champion Joined: 22 Jun 2008 Status: Offline Points: 1493 |
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He can be a bit unpredictable. Such as the day at Caulfield last year when he was at unbackable odds and Probabeel and Nonconformist went straight past him. People thought it was because of the mid race pressure that day. Maybe he's just a bit unreliable and goes out too short in the market.
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djebel
Premium Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Status: Offline Points: 53960 |
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Whilst true on the face of it, it is rather a simpletons way of looking at it. The runner up came out here with plenty of upside. I reckon both would gone close in the Prix dispahan on Sunday.
Edited by djebel - 30 May 2022 at 7:15pm |
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reductio ad absurdum
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JudgeHolden
Champion Joined: 16 Apr 2011 Status: Offline Points: 11716 |
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Frenchie form is a bit like kiwi form. Sometime it’s ok, but no match for the serious form over the channel.
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Jamal
Champion Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Status: Offline Points: 8659 |
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Exactly right JudgeHolden
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Shawy38
Champion Joined: 13 Jun 2015 Status: Online Points: 17265 |
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12/10 ride by Kah.
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Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing
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Carioca
Champion Joined: 13 Nov 2015 Status: Offline Points: 21703 |
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Great ride , and a damn good horse !
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