Keayang Zahara nabs $500,000 bonus in Great Southern Star triumph

Keayang Zahara (Volstead) made it look so easy when she yet again outclassed her harness racing rivals to take out both heat and final of the Group 1 $250,000 Yabby Dam Farms Great Southern Final at Melton on Saturday evening.

Earlier in the evening in the First Heat Keayang Zahara was given as easy a run as possible by driver Jason Lee. Stable mate Jilliby Ballerini commenced safely from the second row to race outside the leader.

Jason Lee only let Keayang Zahara a little more rein in the final quarter when she ran 26.7 seconds to hold off Jilliby Ballerini who showed great resilience to go down by a neck. Rockinwithattitude who had the run behind the leader held on for third placing.

The Lee stable achieved more success when their top flight trotting mare Jilliby Deramlover led all the way to record a faster time than Keayang Zahara. Her winning mile rate of 1.55.7 was notably faster than Keayang Zahara’s time of 1.58.2.

KEAYANG ZAHARA 14 FEB REPLAY

Arcee Phoenix and Lovmeto finished on for the placings.

In the Final from a coveted barrier 3, Keayang Zahara worked her way to the lead ahead of her stablemate Jilliby Ballerini who took the trail behind her. Arcee Phoenix went up to race up alongside Keayang Zahara but at no point did he look as if he would seriously threaten the favourite.

And despite having raced a few hours Keayang Zahara turned in a last quarter of 26.3 seconds to simply ease away from the field. Stablemates Jilliby Ballerini and Jilliby Dreamlover made it a trifecta for the Lee stable in filling in the placings. And Keayang Zahara’s mile rate of 1.54.2 was notably faster than her heat.

There’s not much more left for Keayang Zahara to conquer in Australia although the Inter Dominion series in Brisbane beckons in July.

Following her success, Jason Lee reflected on her win.

I’m over the moon. Really happy but really relieved too, it’s a great week to get out of the way. Just so happy for Marg and Paddy (trainers) they’ve put so much work to try to win this race, probably more so than me. I’ve been driving to win this for the last five to six years and all of the team at home this is what we’ve dreamed of.

I think we may have even had the first few home so that’s just awesome and I just can’t thank all the hard working team at home enough.

(When backing up) there’s always a little bit of concern something like that when you haven’t done it. She’s just a freak next level. I was full of confidence that she’d be right. Any queries I had they disappeared when I came back on the track. On the march she was ready and right up to go. Usually we don’t open her up too much but we let her run up a bit the last 400 tonight. She was amazing.

Money isn’t everything but you can’t run operations without money. We’ll have a good party with that cheque (the $500,000 bonus).

For complete race results, click here.

by Tony Milanese, for Harnesslink