Stable’s field of veterans
SIMON Zahra can’t remember their stable going into a race with as many senior citizens as they are taking into the Kensington Stakes (1000m) at Flemington today.
They will be represented by two eight-year-old geldings who are new recruits, Flamberge and Amber Sky, and stable stalwart, seven-year-old gelding Rock ‘N’ Gold.
The two eight-year-olds are highly credentialed sprinters as Flamberge is a three times Group 1 winner and former Hong Kong sprinter Amber Sky won the 2014 Al Quoz Sprint at Dubai, his last win.
Rock ‘N’ Gold has spent his career with the Ellerton/Zahra stable and has won six races, with his best win at his last campaign when he won the Apache Classic at Cranbourne.
“It’s not often I’d be calling Rock ‘N’ Gold the youngest of our runners in a race,” Zahra said.
Flamberge had a brief stint before with the Zahra/Ellerton barn but spent most of his career with Peter Moody and then with Darren Weir.
Amber Sky found his way to their stables through Damian Lane’s manager Dean Hawkes, who also manages his former trainer Ricky Yiu’s Australian and New Zealand team.
“They wanted to send him to Australia and we got the nod,” Zahra said.
Amber Sky had been in work a long time and they were happy with the way he performed in a jump-out at Werribee this week: “He still has a little bit of condition on him.”
Flamberge performed “terrifically” also in a jump-out at Werribee: “He goes well fresh. He can carry weight. He’s getting a bit long in the tooth but there’s no reason whey he can’t run a good race.”
Zahra also praised Rock ‘ N’ Gold, saying he races well fresh and had a big weight advantage over his stablemates, carrying the bottom weight of 54kg.