Princess Zanzibar takes the next step
The Danny O'Brien trained Princess Zanzibar continued on her winning way at Caulfield this afternoon, collecting the French Deputy Super VOBIS Handicap in fine style.Ridden by James Winks, who also rode her to win at Echuca at her only other start, Princess Zanzibar ($5.50) led all the way to win comfortably by 1¼ lengths from the David Hayes trained Daloob ($4.80) with the favourite Teskara ($3.10F) another 1¼ lengths away in third place.
With the track downgraded to slow after heavy rain overnight, normally the progeny of Princess Zanzibar's sire Royal Academy would be expected to perform below par. He has a progeny strike rate of 14.4% on fast tracks, declining to 9.8% on slow tracks.
However Princess Zanzibar handled the going better than her rivals and won pretty well as she liked.
O'Brien thinks there is more scope yet for his filly and plans to chase stakes races during her current campaign.
"We'll pop her up to Sydney", he said when asked about plans for Princess Zanzibar.
"There's a Listed two year old fillies race over the Carnival there at Randwick."
"The filly's in form and we should be looking for some black type."
Princess Zanzibar was strong at the end of today's 1200m and O'Brien believes that she has the capacity to get over more ground as she matures.
"I don't see any reason why she shouldn't run up to a mile", he said.
"She's by Royal Academy and she might even get even further a bit down the track."
According to The Virtual FormGuide's stallion statistics, Royal Academy progeny have their best strike rate of 14.5% at a distance range of 1301m-1500m. Over 1501m-2000m the strike rate drops away to 9.9%.
However having defied the statistics on a rain affected track, there is probably no reason why Princess Zanzibar won't also disprove them in terms of effective race distance, with her third dam being the Ruantallan mare Dybulbas, winner of the Group 3 Tasmanian Oaks.
O'Brien purchased Princess Zanzibar relatively cheaply for $35,000 at the 2006 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale. She was bred and sold by Rubiton Bloodstock, being out of the Rubiton mare Jozani, which unfortunately died in November last year.
Jozani only produced two live foals, of which Princess Zanzibar was the last. She is a full sister to Glacier Bay, a winner of 14 races, among them the Listed SAJC Classic Mile.
by Bill Saunders - VirtualFormguide.com.au
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