It’s not uncommon for horses to be affected by crowds at major race meetings but trainer Roger James was not prepared for Zonza to fall apart at Hawkesbury.
The mare became agitated in the enclosure before last Saturday’s Rowley Mile and finished last of the nine runners.
The meeting was the provincial club’s once-a-year Saturday fixture and attracted more than 12,000 people, many of whom were at close quarters near the enclosure before Zonza raced.
James has put the incident behind him and hopes Zonza has too.
She lines up in Saturday’s Listed Lord Mayors Cup (2000m), her final start for the season before she has a well earned break at home in New Zealand.
“The occasion got on top of her. She was overawed,” James said.
“She did a bit of a Pravda but she’s come through it well. It hasn’t happened before and I just hope it doesn’t happen again.”
The Paul O’Sullivan-trained Pravda famously held up the start of the 2000 Melbourne Cup and was eventually scratched when she simply refused to go on to the track.
While Zonza did get to the starting gate at Hawkesbury, she never looked like being a factor in the race and finished more than eight lengths from the winner Mouro.
Before her Hawkesbury failure, Zonza had won three of her nine starts and finished second on five occasions with two wins in New Zealand this campaign earning her the trans Tasman trip.
“She’s been in good form,” James said.
“But then she’s never really been out of form and her record says that.
“We brought her over for the two races and we’ll stick to the plan despite what happened at Hawkesbury.
“We are going ahead as if it never happened.”
Jay Ford will also stick with the four-year-old, a $26 chance with the TAB on Friday.
Beaten Up, second in the Rowley Mile, was the $4.80 fixed odds favourite but could be saved for next week’s Scone Cup instead.
