Champagne is generally Mark Zahra’s choice of celebratory beverage, but he pledged to mix things up on Saturday night after scoring a special win early in the Flemington card.
The gun jockey took out the inaugural edition of the $175,000 Listed Mike Moroney (1400m), a race named after the late former trainer, aboard Kiwi filly Lara Antipova.
Zahra was a regular rider for Moroney, who enjoyed great success in Australia based at Flemington, riding 57 winners – including three at Group 1 level – and vowed to celebrate the win with Moroney’s favourite drop.
“It’s very special, he was a good friend of mine, I rode a lot of winners for him (and he was) just all round great bloke,” Zahra said.
“No one had anything bad to say about him, so an absolute privilege (to win).
“I have a glass of red for Mike tonight.”
Lara Antipova is trained by Moroney’s countryman Mark Walker, who worked alongside the Melbourne Cup winner before he came to Australia, and Walker was pleased to see the well-performed filly stand up in Australia.
“It’s great today for the New Zealand industry that our form stacks up,” Walker said.
“She is a Group 1 winner at home and I know this is a Listed race, but it was a quality field today, so it’s just really good when our form stacks up.
“Hopefully we go on to a Thousand Guineas from here.”
