Zahara jogs to 6th G1 in the NZ Trotting Oaks

They say there is no such thing as a certainty in harness racing, but whoever coined that phrase never saw Keayang Zahara (Volstead) win the Ascent on Show Day.

Back to her own sex in the Group One New Zealand Trotting Oaks this evening with a front line draw over the 1980m, only bad luck was ever going to beat the Marg Lee trained superstar.

Once Jason Lee took luck out of the equation and assumed control after 200m with the unbeaten daughter of Volstead, it was pretty much thanks for coming.

The new queen of Australasian trotting’s reputation precedes her as one of the rare calibre of Standardbred’s that can bring a crowd to its feet and better yet, to the track.

That reputation has been well earned as she has pretty much demolished anything in her path en route to a twelve from twelve season prior to this evening, and with that in mind, you can understand why her peers and their pilots weren’t to keen to challenge her in front.

Even Ricky May aboard last season’s champion juvenile filly, Empire City (Volstead) seemed reticent of the talent inside him, and although the Victorian pair were getting away with murder, never challenged Keayang Zahara and Lee.

Just when it appeared the Kiwi’s were content in gifting the visiting filly her sixth Group One, New Zealand’s leading reinsman decided to throw caution to the wind and launched the Tony Barron trained Aspirational Dream (Royal Aspirations) around the field with a lap to run and in doing so, inject some speed into the race once and for all.

Empire City lost concentration and soon after her gait, and galloped out of contention as Orange and Aspirational Dream continued to apply the pressure but it was short lived.

Keayang Zahara had been gawking about at the leisurely pace, and it was almost a blessing in disguise as Lee was forced to give his filly some rein and with it, she found a better a rhythm.

“I didn’t want to knock her around too much, but she is a bit more casual when she is in front so I just had to flick her up and she was good once she started to hit full stride,” said Lee in the aftermath.

“She was pretty casual and I probably invited him a little bit, I wasn’t going real hard or anything, and fair enough, Blair being as good as he is, judged the speed and came and had a bit of a look. But yeah, she was doing it pretty good,” he said.

Keayang Zahara was able to canter to the line under a firm hold and although her margin of victory was only four and half lengths in her second Addington triumph, the by and large quiet run bodes well for a possible tilt at the Derby in a weeks time on the same track.

“We will try to enjoy this one but it’s obviously good to have Marg and all the Uncles here, all the family and Mum and Dad. We will definitely enjoy this one, but I would love to stick around here for another week,” said Lee.

“I reckon it’s awesome over here, and the people are great. Obviously it’s always better when your winning, but I reckon it would be great to have a crack at the Derby,” he said.

The ultra-consistent Matthew Williamson trained Princess Sadie added to her growing black type resume with a tidy second after securing the trail behind the champ throughout the running, whilst the Tony Barron trained outsider, Aspirational Dream, went the race of her life to hang on for third after working hard for the final lap of the G1 feature.

KEAYANG ZAHARA REPLAY

All the plaudits were with the winner however, with Keayang Zahara now a perfect 13 for 13 on race day with six Group One victories to her credit.

Jason Lee has been asked the following question on more than a handful of occasions now, but I’m surer he doesn’t mind being asked over and over how it feels to sit behind a once in a generation type filly.

“I’ve got the nice job of being able to sit behind her, she feels like a rocket when you ask her to go. We probably didn’t have to do too much tonight, she was in second gear and was super,” he said.

The connections of New Zealand’s best three-year-old trotters will be glad to see the back of this equine beast who is affectionately known at home as ‘strawberry’, but as fans of the sport, surely they wouldn’t begrudge the general public one last hurrah in the Derby next week.

After all, it might be a while before we see one as good as her again.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink