A track less worn for Oaks prospect
The Guy Walter-trained Zanbagh is one of the favourites for today’s VRC Oaks despite an unconventional lead-up to the Group One Classic at Flemington.
Twenty-one of the last 30 Oaks winners have been given their Oaks lead-up run in the Wakeful Stakes and Zanbagh will be trying to buck that trend.
Walter instead gave his filly, a daughter of AJC Oaks winner Wild Iris, two starts at Ballarat over 1600 metres and 2000 metres, winning both times.
“She is very lightly raced and whether she made the Oaks or not, we thought giving her wins along the way would be good for her,” Walter said.
“She won with a bit of authority last start, albeit against an average field, but they were older mares and they are hard to beat this time of year.”
Walter admitted the Oaks, for which Wakeful Stakes winner Kirramosa ($3) has the call as favourite over Zanbagh ($4.60), will be a major step up in class for his horse.
“She has to make a big step and I’m confident she can,” he said.
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John O’Shea did run his filly Gypsy Diamond ($9) in the Wakeful and graded her fifth place with “a pass mark”.
He said she had thrived since and he worked her on Tuesday “because she was jumping out of her skin”.
“She’s a very tough, resilient filly,” he said.
“A lot of the fillies in the Wakeful were there on sufferance – my filly is on an upward spiral.”
He will be put blinkers on her in the Oaks to help her relax.
He said Kirramosa has been racing well in Sydney but without much luck.
“Some of her runs in slowly run races have been excellent and it was no surprise to see what she did on Saturday,” O’Shea said.
Cup-winning jockey Damien Oliver is set to claim another prize today; he rides favourite Diamond Earth in the Group 3 G.H. Mumm Stakes.
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Oliver, however, is without a ride in the feature event, the VRC Oaks.
Off the track, meanwhile, the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board will hear the charges laid by the stewards against trainer Gai Waterhouse on Friday
The Melbourne Cup-winning trainer will front the RAD Board to answer charges relating to raceday treatment given to Cup runner Tres Blue on Tuesday.
Waterhouse, trainer of Cup winner Fiorente, has been called over an antibiotic cream applied to the hooves of her other runner Tres Blue.
Tre Bleu, having his first start in Australia, finished 23rd.
She told the stewards on Tuesday that treatment had been administered by stablehands.
Victoria’s chief steward Terry Bailey said had the Waterhouse stable asked permission to apply the paste, it would have been granted.
Bailey also said there could be no comparison between Tuesday’s case and that of Adelaide trainer Paul Beshara who was banned for six months after being found guilty of giving Happy Trails an injection of an unknown substance on the morning he was due to race in September.
“In the Beshara case, it was clear the horse had received an injection,” Bailey said.
“The evidence was overwhelming. The trainer denied it therefore we weren’t able to establish what it had been injected with.
“That’s a whole different scenario.”
