Zoustyle back with a bang at Sunshine Coast

There is no prize for guessing the performance of the day at the opening meeting of the Queensland Summer Carnival at the Sunshine Coast.

It was Zoustyle’s performance that left punters gobsmacked as he lowered the 1000m track record to a sizzling 55.80 seconds under the steadying burden of 58kg, first-up after a fourteen-month break from race action!

The six-year-old son of Zoustar had been out of sight and out of mind for so long … the featured Swiss Ace Plate was his first start since September 19, 2020 … that, for some, going into the race there were clearly doubts that needed to be allayed and questions that needed to be answered, as there always is when a horse resumes after a lengthy, largely injury enforced layoff … but trainer Tony Gollan was not one of those stressing about the outcome.

“He did what I was probably hoping he could come here and do,” said Gollan after the race.

“He had a really good grounding going into the race, so I was not one bit concerned about his fitness or anything like that. During the break he had all of that rehab work done on him and more often than not in the last sixty weeks he has been in work and out of work. It’s been good … and he pulled up as clear as a whistle. I’m pleased with the race obviously and I’m really pleased with the way he recovered post-race.

“He showed his customary speed. He looked very good mid-race. He controlled himself well and, probably with Ryan (Maloney) not even going full bore on him, he won very well.

“He has always been that sort of horse that is going to run time and make it look easy doing it. He has a lovely, big, economical stride. He covers an awful lot of ground and he does seem to do it easy in itself.

“Having said that, clearly when they run that sort of time it does take a bit more out of them, so we’ll be careful to have a look at that over the next week.

“I have planned where we will go next,” continued Gollen. “I really want to go to the George Moore in a couple of weeks. Then I want to run in the Falvelon on Boxing day … that’s a race for a wildcard entry into the Magic Millions.

“Hopefully we can do that but, if it turns out that this win has knocked him around more than it appears now, then I will just wait until Boxing Day.

“It never gets any easier, but he is a really good horse and he’s going to have a good summer ahead of him,” concluded Gollan.