Nichols foresees bright future for Sunzou but Danehill unlikely to be his day
Zoustar colt set to be saved for crack at the Blue Sapphire Stakes at Caulfield
Group 1-winning Victorian trainer Shane Nichols is confident last-start maiden winner Sunzou (Zoustar) is the best colt he’s had through his Mornington stable for quite some time, but he is likely to resist the urge to test the three-year-old in black type company in the Danehill Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m).
The lightly raced colt was one of three by–Zoustar three-year-olds nominated for the $300,000 Group 2 race down the Flemington straight on Saturday, but Nichols last night said he was instead likely to wait for another race during the Caulfield carnival.
Sunzou, a $150,000 purchase by Nichols and Horse Venture’s Matthew Sandblom from the Widden Stud draft at the 2021 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, won first-up last Wednesday at Bendigo on a heavy track.
“I do like him a lot, but he’ll probably go to the Blue Sapphire. The ten-day back up off that really heavy track at Bendigo might make him a little leg weary against the A-graders or, well, the A-minuses or whatever they might be, so he will probably go to the Blue Sapphire (next start),” Nichols told ANZ Bloodstock News yesterday.
“I think he’s pretty good, he’s as nice a young colt as I’ve had for a long time, but whether he just wants to get it over and done with a bit quick, we’ll find that out as we go up in grade, but he’s certainly very talented.”
Nichols suggested the nose victory over 1100 metres at Bendigo, after getting slowly away from barrier one, was “not definitive” of the horse’s ability.
“(Jockey) Ethan Brown, who would know, said, ‘this horse should have been beaten today because I just had to do a lot of work; I had him overracing and when I clicked him up he felt enormous and he just burst clear, but if I’d have ridden him before I would have held onto him for a lot longer because I would have had the race under control the whole way and won by two or three and not come off the bridle’,” Nichols said.
“Ethan didn’t know the horse as (Ben) Melham had done all the work on him, but he couldn’t go to Bendigo to ride him.
“The horse half bounced as he looked at the starter. I think he’s a nice horse, but I just think the Danehill might be a stretch – and I could be instructed otherwise by the owners.”
At his only other race start, as an autumn two-year-old, Sunzou finished last of nine in the Redoute’s Choice Stakes (Listed, 1100m) at Caulfield on April 9.
“He’d been trialling up enormously [before his first start], but he’d been feeling his shins,” the trainer said.
“He was on the verge of [shin sore] going in, but we got them to settle down a few days before, but once he let go, he felt them, so we didn’t get a result there.”
Nichols is adamant that the Blue Sapphire Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) – a key lead-up to the Coolmore Stud Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) – is the preferred option for Sunzou.
“Saturday’s is not a strong edition of the Danehill by any stretch and I don’t think they’re a vintage lot, but we’ll probably wait for the Blue Sapphire,” he said.
“I think (Blue Diamond Prelude winner) Lofty Strike’s going there, but the rest of them will be similar to us, coming out of Benchmark 64s or maiden grade.”
The Peter Moody-trained Brereton, a winner of the Maribyrnong Plate (Gr 3, 1000m) at two, is another three-year-old by Zoustar entered for Saturday’s Danehill Stakes as is the Leon and Troy Corstens-trained, Poseidon Stakes (Listed, 1100m) placed Zou Sensation.
Perth’s Gold Rush possible for Streets Of Avalon
Meanwhile, Nichols is confident his stable stalwart Streets Of Avalon (Magnus) is back to his old self after an indifferent winter, following the effects of travel sickness while on his way to Rockhampton in central Queensland for The Archer (1300m) in May.
After winning a Sandown jump out yesterday in good time, Nichols immediately outlined a spring campaign which could culminate in the eight-year-old gelding heading to Perth for revamped summer carnival and, specifically, the inaugural running of the $1.5 million Gold Rush (Gr 3, 1400m) at Ascot on December 10.
“The way he trialled this morning, he trialled like he was a six-year-old,” Nichols said of Streets Of Avalon, a winner of the Futurity Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) and C F Orr Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
“He didn’t get a long break (after the illness) and I thought he was only ‘wishy washy’ in the Lawrence; I didn’t feel like he gave his best and we found he had a bit of a viral infection.”
The Moonga Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) at Caulfield on October 15 shapes as the gelding’s next start.
“We’ve waited to run him in the Moonga, then he’ll go to Linlithgow, which is now on Derby Day over 1400 at weight-for-age, and then he’ll either go to the Kevin Heffernan at Sandown or he’ll go over to Perth and run in the Gold Rush, a 1400-metre Group 3 worth $1.5 million.”
Despite Streets Of Avalon’s bad experience in Queensland, Nichols doubts there will be a repeat if he does choose to go to Western Australia later this year.
“We’ll fly to Perth, that’ll be 12 hours stable to stable instead of four days. By the time we’d got to Rocky, he’d been travelling for a week because we stayed in Brisbane for a few days as well,” he said.