One horse that can epitomize both the pitfalls and pleasures of racing ownership is Zarastro.
The son of I Am Invincible romped home with ease at Eagle Farm on Saturday, fully justifying his prohibitive starting price of $1.65 in his eleventh career start and in only his second start for trainer Tony Gollan.
The $32 000 on-line purchase by a large group of owners has already won $65 200 for those two starts for his new owners … an early, really healthy return on investment … and the on-course celebration by his connections ramped up the obvious pleasure of the moment.
“I wanted to see him jump, relax, travel and finish off and that is what he did,” said Gollan.
But … if you go back to the nine runs before Zarastro transferred to the Gollan yard, it is quite a different story … in fact he was a cash guzzler with the pitfalls seemingly coming thick and fast.
Zarastro was originally purchased by a Coolmore syndicate for a seven-figure sum … that’s right, seven figures … and placed with trainer Chris Waller.
From November 12, 2020 to October 11, 2021, Zarastro had five trials, but only raced once on December 19, 2020.
When he did race again, he seemed to show the hoped for potential, winning two races on the trot in October and November 2021 … but he then again was kept away from race action for another four months, suggesting there were issues the were proving troublesome.
In the five-and-a-half months following his return from that break, Zarastro had a further six starts for Waller, never finishing closer than fourth. His last run for Waller was on September 28, 2002, after which his connections decided to cut their considerable losses and put the horse on sale.
“Some mates of mine found him online and bought him. Regular clients, yeah. Good friends as well … and they got a bunch of their mates involved … some first-time owners as well which is good. I didn’t even know they were doing that,” said Gollan, taking up the story.
“He came to us not long after that last run for Chris (Waller). We just gave him a big spell … three months on the farm … took the shoes off him and let him get back to being a horse.
“Then we brought him in and gave him a lot of pre-training … six or seven weeks at Embrook and then brought him in to Eagle Farm.
“He just needed a lot of time, and he wasn’t without his niggles, and I tried to work through it all with him.
“I also really wanted to wait until this time of year with him … obviously there are a lot of lower grade benchmark races on a Saturday at this time of year. He is a horse of good ability, and I thought if we could get him sound and happy, the right grade of race would present for him … which is what happened.
“I knew it was going to be a bit of a challenge Horses like that are not straight forward … so we just went back to the old style of putting him out in the paddock and then starting with a blank canvas … and the new ownership group was happy to let me do that … and its paying dividends now.”
As Gollan himself pointed out, Zarastro’s Eagle Farm win only came in a Benchmark 72 Handicap … so there is certainly no question of anybody getting ahead of themselves in terms of just how far Zarastro might go … but his return to winning form is a big step in the right direction … and remember he was only just touched off in his first start for Gollan when first-up after a little over eight months away from race action.
The implication is that as long as he can stay … to use Gollan’s words … “sound and happy” … there is a good chance that the value of the confidence he got from outclassing his opposition here could well flow on to help Zarastro claim further success … whatever that level of success might be.
What pitfalls and pleasures lie ahead? Nobody knows.
Right now though, Zarastro’s first group of owners are likely to be ruing the day they went to a seven figure sales price-tag for him … while his current owners must be thrilled with his progress while celebrating their good fortune.
That … as they say … is racing!’
