He’s probably the most boomed horse we’ve seen in Australia for years after his stunning Gr 1 effort in the winter, and so it was good to see ZAAKI (Leroidesanimaux – Kesara) return to the track at Warwick Farm this morning.
He trialled over 900m under former French Gr 1 level jockey Raphael Marchelli for trainer Annabel Neasham. Also in the trial was Joe Pride’s extremely smart PRIVATE EYE (Al Maher – Confidential Queen) who has won 6 of his 9 starts including the Gr 2 Queensland Guineas in May.
Apprentice Zac Wadick rode him so there was a considerable difference in weight carried by each horse.
WISDOM OF WATER (Headwater – Regal Tier) also with Neasham now, and who last raced in June, came into the trial with a series of Gr 2 level placings and advanced residual fitness.
So it was no surprise to see him go straight to the front with Zaaki dropping in behind near last in the field of five.
Held together Wisdom Of Water sat four wide with Private Eye racing underneath him.
As they quickened Zaaki lost contact with the pack and raced wide. He wasn’t asked to do much at all after that.
Joe Pride should be happy with the way Private Eye trialled. He narrowly won the dash in 52.14sec under brilliant sunshine from BOWERY BREEZE ( Excellerbration – Manhattan Tempest) and PRIME CANDIDATE (Denman – Coolroom Candidate) with Zaaki about 5 lengths back in 4th getting past Wisdom Of Water in the final 50m.
It was a solid hit out for the Cox Plate favourite who has won his past three races: the Gr 2 Hollindale by over 2 lengths; the Gr 1 Doomben Cup by 7 lengths and the Gr 2 Sky Racing Cup by 1.5 lengths when paying $1.26.
Zaaki has won $1,847,000 in prize money thus far.
Watch the trial of Zaaki below 📺 👇
