He still has some kinks in his racing style to iron out, but Zou Sensation is likely to be directed towards the top level now after winning Saturday’s $150,000 Victorian Jockeys’ Association Trophy at Flemington.
The six-year-old Zoustar gelding made it three wins in a row with a gritty on-pace performance in the 1410-metre benchmark 100 event.
It followed two wins at Caulfield and co-trainer Will Larkin, who prepares the gelding in partnership with Leon and Troy Corstens, said consideration would be given to a start in next month’s Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.
“He’s definitely a horse that is starting to put his hand up as one that could probably go to a Rupert Clarke in time,” Larkin said.
“We’ll probably be looking at that and, how he gets there, we’ll work it out.
“I think he’s definitely a better horse when he’s chasing and allowed to get cover, so when we go up in grade and get into those better races there’s going to be better tempo and he’s probably going to be allowed to do that.”
Zou Sensation was allowed to stride forward from a wide barrier by Jamie Melham, who then had the job of trying to get him to settle in the middle stages.
Despite overracing, the $2.30 betting site favourite gave a kick in the straight and lasted to score a long-head win over Running By ($13) with Fortunate Kiss ($11) a long-neck back third.
Melham attached a non-complimentary tag to Zou Sensation but said that was just a mark of his level of ability.
“He was always going to win then they got to him and he pinned his ears back and got angry and was not going to let them past him,” Melham said.
“He’s just an arrogant horse. He knows he’s good.”
Zou Sensation has now won seven of his 25 starts and Saturday’s $82,500 winner’s cheque took the Bennett Racing galloper’s career earnings beyond $500,000.
