Sydney trainer Joe Pride has been in great form in the past week but almost missed his biggest result with I Am Zelady at the Gold Coast.
I Am Zelady ($8) gave Tim Clark a winner with his only ride of the day when she ran a race record to win Saturday’s $1 million Magic Millions Fillies and Mares Hcp (1300m).
I Am Zelady
Pride trained a stakes double at Gosford on Friday with Destiny;s Kiss winning the Gold Cup Ammirata the Belle of the Turf.
“We have had six runners this week and five of them have won with the other one running second to a stablemate,” Pride said.
“But I almost missed this one. The plane got in at 11.30 and it took me two hours to get here.”
“I arrived in time to tighten up the saddle before she paraded.”
Pride hopes I Am Zelady will develop into an autumn carnival mare in Sydney but isn’t exactly sure which races she will contest.
“She will win a Group race but I don’t know if a race like the Coolmore Classic might be a bit far,” he said.
“Still she was very strong to the line today.”
I Am Zelady, who cost $80,000 at the 2013 Magic Millions sales, is out of the good producing mare Zelady making her a half sister to smart Brisbane two-year-old Zelady’s Night Out.
“She is already a valuable brood mare and will be worth even more after the autumn,’ Pride said.
Clark could have had a full book at Canterbury on Saturday but elected to come north.
“After she got beaten last start I said to Joe that she can still win the Millions race,” he said.
“That day she was up in trip too quick and got tired but in this race she came back 50 metres and dropped a lot in weight.
“I rode her like she was the best horse in the race and she was explosive.”
Another Warwick Farm mare, the Greg Hickman-trained Private Secretary, came from a long way back to run second.
“She finished well but the winner had too big a break on us,” jockey Tye Angland said.
