Cup winner asked to conjure miracle
ZAHRA READY TO ROLL WITH BALLER
TONY Gollan has called on Cup winner Mark Zahra to try to conjure a Melbourne Cup week miracle on what could be one of the best roughies of the day on Saturday.
On the face of it, $51 pop Baller is out of his depth against the likes of Nature Strip, Giga Kick and co in the Group 1 Champions Sprint at Flemington.
But don’t discount the Queensland sprinter running the race of his life.
He has had two runs down the Flemington straight already this spring, surging home for Zahra in what was viewed as the worst part of the track to score the Group 2 Bobbie Lewis Quality.
He then lost few admirers when he was only 2½ lengths off Private Eye in the Group 2 Gilgai Stakes.
Private Eye then produced a stunning run to finish second in The Everest and reaffirmed his status as a top-shelf star when blowing them away in the $3m Nature Strip Stakes at Rosehill last Saturday.
Baller clearly has to produce a career peak performance – and probably have something go wrong with the favourites – to strike in the Champions Sprint on Saturday.
But Gollan says he shouldn’t be discounted.
“Mark (Zahra) deserves to enjoy himself after winning the Cup but he will be ready to go for us on Saturday and he knows this horse well, having won the Bobbie Lewis on him,” Gollan said.
“It’s obviously a very good race, we are drawn around a fair few nice horses.
“It is an interesting race, how they are going to run, where they are going to get to on the track.
“The good thing about our horse is he is third-up which suits him in a preparation, he has had a good space between runs, which also suits him. He enjoys the straight and a little bit of cut in the ground, it’s not going to be rock hard.
“I always thought Nature Strip was going to go to this race, to be honest I thought a few more of The Everest horses might have run in this race.
“But the last race Baller came out of, you can’t argue that was very good form.
“The winner (Private Eye) has come out and arguably nearly could have won The Everest and then came out and bolted in the other day.
“The form around our bloke is great but I understand he would have to run an absolute career peak to trouble the scorer.”
Gollan believes Baller should have finished closer to Private Eye in his last race and insists his Queensland sprinter is a genuine top four or five chance on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Gollan’s three-year-old colt Nettuno has been sent for a spell after disappointing when finishing 13th in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington last Saturday.
Gollan had high hopes Nettuno could knock off a good race during the southern spring carnival but the closest he came was when finishing runner-up in the Group 3 San Domenico Stakes at Rosehill.
“The Coolmore was just really disappointing, nothing went right in the race,” Gollan said. “It was one of those preparations where things just didn’t go to plan.”