Angela Jones, fresh from her historic win in last season’s Brisbane Jockey’s Premiership (she is the first female rider to land that honour) will be stepping out on a new stage when she rides at Caulfield on Saturday.
Jones will be aboard the Tony Gollan trained Zarastro in the Group 3 Heath 1100 Stakes over 1100m … a horse which she has ridden on no less than fourteen occasions for five wins and three second placings.
So, while Jones might be at an unfamiliar venue, her rapport with her mount could not be of a higher order, and that relationship will be a huge plus on the running.
Zarastro’s last race result epitomised just how formidable a combination the Jones / Zarastro partnership has proved to be.
That came in the Group 1 Kingsford Smith Cup over 1300m at Eagle Farm on June 7.
Unwanted with betting sites at $17, Zarastro, under an inspired ride by Jones, had the race won until the final few strides when a flying Joliestar and James McDonald cut her down in heartbreaking fashion in the shadow of the post … heartbreaking because, had Zarastro prevailed, it would have given Jones the first Group 1 win of her career.
While there no such lofty goals on offer on Saturday with the Heath being a Group 3 event, as with any race, the task of fitting the pieces of the puzzle together still remains.
Zarastro is down in class (from Group 1 to Group 3) and tackles a shorter trip (back to 1100m from 1300m). She did win over 1100m earlier in her career, but that would now be considered a distance short of her best. She is first-up though, so will have freshness on her side. She has won first-up before.
The Caulfield track is currently rated a Good 4. Seven of Zarastro’s nine wins have come on ‘Good’ going (the other two were on a surface rated ‘Soft’). Weighed again that is that she has got something of a visitor’s draw (barrier twelve). On the up-side, Zarastro could have enough gate-speed to help offset that disadvantage, although it is not an ideal situation.
For all of that, the bottom line is Zarastro, a $1.5 million earner who has finished either first or second in more than fifty percent of her starts, is a quality performer who seems certain to make her presence felt at some stage in the running in the same way that she is right there at the top of the betting boards.
And there is likely to be no shortage of confidence from the stable, giving its current strike-rate.
Tony Gollan, the eleven-time Brisbane Trainer’s Metropolitan Premiership winner who saddles Zarastro, is off to a flyer this season having already landed twenty Metropolitan wins with the first month of the season yet to be completed … and there is no reason to suggest he can’t carry that form over to Melbourne.
And then, last but not least, we get back to the Angela Jones factor, a high achieving rider still on the rise … one of those jockeys that horses ‘run for.’
By the time it is all over, there is every chance that racegoers at Caulfield will know that Jones has been in town.
