A bare spring carnival for Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra has been put behind the training partners as off-season summer racing approach.
While notching winners on provincial and country tracks, Ellerton and Zahra hardly had a runner during the Melbourne spring carnival.
Moonee Valley winner Whistle Baby was the training duo’s first Saturday runner since early October.
It was by design rather than being forced upon them learning from a summer spell last year that Zahra said produced a winner on 10 consecutive Saturdays.
Durendal provided the stable with a winner at the Ballarat Cup meeting last week while Whistle Baby scored a last stride win in the Wedrive.com.au Handicap on Saturday.
Wins by Propelled and Kaiser Sun at Moonee Valley 12 months ago kick-started their summer and Zahra says the stable has the firepower to have a good run again this year.
“If you haven’t got the Group horses or the top notch three-year-olds you’re wasting your time in the spring,” Zahra said.
“It was frustrating sitting at home on the couch watching with everyone saying you’re going terrible, but we had a plan and we’ve stuck to it.
“The owners have been patient and now hopefully we can get the rewards.”
Zahra pointed out the stable had a good 2014-15 season, finishing as the leading trainers at Flemington while also the leading Super VOBIS stable.
And he said it happened without a banner horse.
“Hopefully we can find one,” he said.
“We’ve got some really nice three-year-olds and we just wanted to bring them up slowly.
“The spring came around a bit quick for some of ours so we’ll just head into the autumn and see how we go.”
Zahra is hoping Whistle Baby can progress to black type after her first-up success.
Backed from $4.80 into $4.40, Whistle Baby scored a half-head win over Kalabek ($20) with Catch That Cat, the $3.80 favourite, the same margin away third.
Zahra said owner Ben Cooper was about to embark on a breeding program with Whistle Baby.
“She’s been going super this time,” Zahra said.
“She’s really switched on in the stable so we’ll poke around with her during the summer and hopefully we can pick up some black type in the autumn.”
