The Chosen One tackles Mt Zaaki
Kiwi Group 1 stars take on hot favourite Zaaki in A$1m Doomben Cup tomorrow
Trainer Andrew Forsman realises the quest for his second solo black-type win is going to be enormously more difficult than his first. Forsman started training on his own account only 20 days ago after a hugely successful partnership with the now-retired Murray Baker, and his first Group race win didn’t take long, with Francesca bolting away with the Group 3 Rotorua Stakes last Saturday.
While grateful and relieved to get that milestone so early in his solo career, the competition steps up several notches for his next Group race assignment with The Chosen One in the A$1 million Doomben Cup in Brisbane tomorrow.
Not only does The Chosen One take on the might of defending Doomben Cup hero Zaaki but is coming off a career-worst run in the Sydney Cup and facing a track wetter than he would like.
“These big Group 1s in Australia are never easy but he has a bit against him this week,” admits Forsman.
“Zaaki is a very good horse, especially when he gets his way. I don’t think he is unbeatable but everything looks to be stacking up perfectly for him this week.”
Forsman knows The Chosen One’s Sydney Cup flop was too bad to be true and The Chosen One was one of several high-class gallopers who couldn’t get their hooves out of the Randwick mud that day.
“It is hardly what you want going into a $1 million Group 1, but he has had plenty of time to get over that and has settled in well in Queensland.
“The drier the track is for us the better but if Zaaki gets his own way in front it may not matter what we do.”
Good enough to finish third in a Caulfield Cup and fourth in a Melbourne Cup, The Chosen One could extend his season, and career, at least another run with a good performance tomorrow, with the new race the Q22 still a possible target.
He isn’t the only Group 1 New Zealand winner from this summer taking on Zaaki with Coventina Bay backing up after finishing fifth to him in the Hollindale on the Gold Coast last start.
Coventina Bay did enough that day to suggest she can place if the track returns to something more in the mid-range, but like The Chosen One it is hard to see her emulating the recently-retired Probabeel, a Kiwi mare who was good enough to beat Zaaki at Group 1 level in Melbourne in the spring.
Her trainer Robbie Patterson already tasted Queensland success this week with his talented filly Nom De Plume winning at the Sunshine Coast polytrack meeting on Wednesday, with Master Marko winning earlier at the meeting for Southland trainer Kelvin Tyler.
While Forsman is not bursting with confidence with The Chosen One, he is looking forward to the resumption of Turn The Ace in a good three-year-old race at Te Rapa tomorrow.
Precocious enough to win both his starts as a juvenile this time last year, Turn The Ace hasn’t added to that tally since and last started in the Karaka Classic Mile in January.
“We know he has got talent but I think he was just a touch weak to show it last campaign,” says Forsman. “But he has come back well and won well at the trials.”
Turn The Ace is up against some smart three-year-olds including the high-class topweight Wewillrock, who was third on this track last start in the Breeders Stakes and has a far better draw tomorrow.
He looks to have the potential to develop into an open-class sprinter and even his 58.5kg may not be enough to stop him in the race which doubles as a qualifier for the new Winter Championships at Ruakaka on July 16.