Brave mare Zapateo blitzes rivals in The Galaxy
Outstanding sprinting mare Zapateo (Brazen Beau) yielded yet another Group 1 for Godolphin and a second top-tier success for her Darley sire with a resolute victory in Saturday’s $1 million The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) at Rosehill.
The mare was ridden to perfection by Kerrin McEvoy, who was enjoying his 83rd Group 1 winner, one race after his agonisingly close second in the Golden Slipper on Coleman (Pierata).
However, The rider’s day finished in horrific circumstances after he fell from the Brad Widdup-trained Tintookie (Winning Rupert), who was fatally injured and humanely euthanized following the incident. McEvoy remained conscious and was treated by paramedics on the track before being transported to Westmead Hospital for x-rays.
Zapateo defied the market as a $26 chance to narrowly trump $5.50 favourite Sunshine In Paris (Invader) by a 0.2 lengths.
The $1 million dash featured several underwhelming runs by more fancied rivals. Uncommon James (Cable Bay, $9) ran fifth after having the run of the race. Passive Aggressive (Fastnet Rock, $11) had every chance in finishing sixth. King’s Gambit (I Am Invincible, $12) was lacklustre in eighth, while Private Eye (Al Maher, $6.50) and Godolphin’s Aft Cabin (Astern, $6) ran 11th and 12th respectively.
Bjorn Baker’s exciting Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Ozzmosis (Zoustar, $10) had a major excuse. Fractious in the gates, he reared and almost unseated a brave Rachel King as the barriers opened. King rode with only one foot in a stirrup for the first half of the race, and Ozzmosis eventually finished a distant last.
But there can be no doubting the fortitude of Zapateo. With 53 kilograms under the handicap conditions, the mare found the one-one from gate eight, and ground determinedly past ultimate third and fourth placegetters Front Page (Magnus, $13) and Asfoora (Flying Artie, $18) to hit the lead at the 50-metre mark.
Group 1 winner Sunshine In Paris (Invader) then made things interesting by producing one of the few dynamic runs up the inside on the day to nearly nab victory, but it was Zapateo who prevailed with a sustained run, setting the second-fastest last 600 metres (33.85) on the day’s good 4 track, and adding a top-tier success to her Group 2, three Group 3s and Listed victories.
The five-year-old is the fifth of six named foals for Darley’s Listed-winning deceased mare Jerezana (Lonhro), and she now ranks as the finest in a strong family.
One half-brother Badajoz (Commands) ran a Group 2 second, while another – Osborne Bulls (Street Cry) – fared considerably better, winning three stakes races, capped by a Flemington Group 2. He also infamously ran second in five straight Group 1s in one preparation in the autumn of 2019. Three of them were as favourite, in the VRC Newmarket Handicap (Gr 1, 1200m) and Randwick’s TJ Smith Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and All Aged Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m), the last was as a $2.90 second elect in the Doomben 10,000 (Gr 1, 1200m).
Zapateo, winner of seven of 24 before Saturday, was drifting at the other end of the market yesterday despite a fine previous-start second in Passive Aggressive’s Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m). But, having run two thirds at the top level – back-to-back in Morphettville’s Sangster Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) and The Goodwood (Gr 1, 1200m) last May – she has now broken through.
In so doing, she brought a second individual top-flight winner for Darley’s sire Brazen Beau (I Am Invincible), and the 12-year-old’s first in Australia, with his previous top honour held by 2021 Manawatu Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) hero On The Bubbles.
She also raised a 44th Group 1 for trainer James Cummings, 42 of which have come since he became Godolphin’s chief trainer in Australia in May, 2017, at a rate of six per season.
“It’s so important for Zapateo. She’s a phenomenal racehorse by Brazen Beau and she just needed that Group 1 on her CV,” Cummings said.
“She was very good first up [when third at Caulfield]. We had great faith that there was improvement in her and a month [between runs] into the weight-for-age run in the Challenge last start, she was good.
“She beat home the stablemate [Aft Cabin] who was the tip horse out of the stable. Kerrin gave her the run of the race and it makes all the difference in a handicap.
“It seemed to me that a lot went wrong for Aft Cabin. He was put out of the race by some interference early, and just got dragged way too far back.
“But when Zapateo was able to make her own luck, she was in that second line of the speed horses, Kerrin had her travelling sweetly and she was looming up as a massive chance.
“You just had to have full faith in the horse. She’s had the runs, she’s had the right prep and her fitness got her over the line.
“Now she’s got the Group 1 on her CV which is just huge for her and huge for the farm. Everyone is going to be rapt about that.”
McEvoy praised the training effort of Cummings to turn Zapateo into a Group 1-winning mare.
“He picked this race out. She ran a brilliant race in the Challenge and got in with a nice weight today. She’s just a tough, genuine and talented filly,” he said.
“She jumped out into a beautiful spot, I travelled like the winner the whole way. I thought, ‘Wow I’m in a dream position here’, but they left me a bit at the top of the lane and I was a tiny bit worried.
“Then 100 yards later when I got after her she hit into overdrive and away she went. She powered to the line.”