Canberra sprinter Zaratone has figured in a sudden change in plans to make the most of a venue switch for the $100,000 June Stakes.
Trainer Nick Olive said he was set to call an end to a campaign which had netted Zaratone a Group Three victory when he discovered the June Stakes would be run at a different track.
Traditionally run at Randwick, the 1100m Listed race will be held at Rosehill for the first time on Saturday and few runners have a better record over the course than Olive’s uncomplicated speedster.
“I was going to put him in the paddock until someone told me the race was going to be at Rosehill,” Olive said.
“Eleven hundred metres around Rosehill is just about his pet trip so he can go for a spell after Saturday now.”
Zaratone’s record at the course and distance includes wins in the Starlight and Sebring Stakes as well as a placing in the McCarten Stakes.
His wire-to-wire Sebring win in April provided one of the best form references for sprinters during the Sydney autumn carnival.
Third placegetter Master Of Design and the eighth-placed Temple Of Boom posted Group One victories at their next starts.
Zaratone has been unplaced three times since the Sebring but Olive says he has been far from disappointed with the six-year-old.
“I thought his run in the (Group One) Galaxy and his run at Scone were both pretty sensational,” he said.
There has been one snag to Olive’s Rosehill plans with jockey Kathy O’Hara unable to continue a winning association with the sprinter.
O’Hara will be riding in a race for Arabian horses in Germany at the weekend after earning a late call-up to replace the injured Michelle Payne.
“I’m not sure who I will get to ride him,” Olive said. “I might bring one of my own jockeys up from Canberra.”
The June Stakes has attracted 21 entries, including accomplished sprinter Jersey Lily who will be having her first start for training partners Lee Freedman and Graeme Rogerson.
Jersey Lily was a recent Gerry Harvey purchase who confirmed her fitness with a Randwick barrier trial win on May 21.
In-form three-year-old Emotional Circus is also entered after successive wins against her own age at Rosehill and Scone.
