Date posted March 14, 2010 | Posted by Michele Cullen | Filed under
Feature Stallion Thank you, Arrowfield and Coolmore, for Danehill. He is the best stallion to have stood in Australia in the modern era and on Saturday at Flemington, his hulking son, Zipping, grabbed his day in the sun when he took the $1million Darley Australian Cup in a heart-stopping finish.
Showing all the finest qualities every owner looks for in a racehorse - guts, strength, speed, a will to win with a temperament that would allow a child to ride, Zipping gave the son of Danzig his 89th winner at the elite level.
Zipping re-wrote history last November when he claimed the Group 2 Sandown Classic for the third time. On Saturday, he went up in class to a race that was run under weight-for-age conditions and over a distance, 2000m, that is a little short of his best, to claim the first Group One race of his career.
The tough-as-teak no nonsense, eight-year-old gelding beat the Bart Cummings-trained Sirmione (Encosta de Lago – World Guide by Defensive Play) by a nose in the heart stopping finish.
Zipping (white cap) wins the Group I Darley Australian Cup (pic Sportpix)
Sirmione had looked likely to give Cummings another Australian Cup but Zipping stretched his neck under Nick Hall to give Lloyd Williams and his team the $600,000 cheque and take his career earnings past $3.3million.
Hall told TVN’s Bruce Clark that he was not sure whether Zipping had won. While Williams’ son Nick described Zipping as a tough horse.
“I was sure Sirmione had him but he wouldn’t get beaten,”
“It’s very difficult to beat Bart at the best of times. It just shows how great he (Cummings) is because this horse is in career-best form and he could only win by an inch,” Williams said.
Zipping had travelled wide throughout and had been urged along for the majority of the race. Barbaricus had taken the field along at leisurely tempo with Divine Rebel following and as they swung for home the field bunched, with Sirmione and Zipping, rounding the home corner out wide.
Sirmione raced up to grab the lead inside the 200m but Zipping kept giving his all on his inside and grabbed Sirmione in the last bound to record his 14th and most important win.
Zipping was having his 41st race start and along with his nine placing’s the bay has a special place in Williams’ senior heart.
Speaking on radio sport 927 on Sunday morning, he said,
“It was a huge thrill - and despite what my son said on TVN he won’t be going to Sydney for the BMW,”
“It’s terrific for my team up at Mt Macedon, particularly the people who have looked after him all his life, Jason Chandler and Eddie Cassar who has ridden him all his work.”
“He’s not going any place except the paddock tomorrow morning and then we’ll get him back for another go at the Cox Plate or the Moonee Valley Gold Cup.”
When you look at Zipping’s race record, it explains why Danehill was so popular with breeders in the southern hemisphere.
Zipping won his maiden on debut as a juvenile beating a field of 12 in 2004. At four, he claimed his first stakes win in the Listed Melbourne Cup day plate. The following season he won the Group 2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m) and finished fourth behind Delta Blues in the Melbourne Cup.
At six, Zipping won his first Sandown Classic (2400m) and finished fourth behind Williams champion stayer Efficient in the Melbourne Cup, and at seven, he won his second Sandown Classic and finished runner-up in the WS Cox Plate behind Maldivian.
Now, eight, he’s won his Group I, a third Sandown Classic and has another WS Cox Plate placing on his resume.
Therefore, it is easy to understand why Williams spoke with so much emotion in his voice,
“I’m going to look after him and give him another break.”
Cummings other runner, Moatize (Danehill Dancer – Shezabeel by Zabeel) rocketed home from well back in the field to deny the race favourite Heart of Dreams third prize by a nose.
Zipping is out of Social Scene (by Grand Lodge), a winner in England over a mile, and he was selected for Williams as yearling by Graeme Rogerson, from the draft of Collingrove Stud at the 2003 William Inglis Easter Yearling sale.
Social Scene is a half-sister to the triple Group I winner, Scorpion (by Montjeu) and the Canadian Grade 1 winner Memories (by Don’t Forget Me), and is owned by Fairway Thoroughbreds in New South Wales. A chestnut, Social Scene has a yearling filly by Fastnet Rock and a filly foal by Encosta de Lago and was served by a son of Danehill, Duke of Marmalade last November.
Zipping comes from the eleventh and penultimate southern hemisphere crop of Danehill and is the 348th stakes winner and one of the 1543 individual winners that he has sired.
Just to prove you can never have too much of a good thing. At the William Inglis Australian Easter sale in April among the 69 stallions that have, yearlings for catalogued for sale 18 of them are sons of Danehill while another eight are grandsons. All up, those sons and grandsons have 330 yearlings to be offered for sale. Most of them are bay, like Zipping, with some listed as brown, grey or chestnut, and they make up more than half of the 600 plus catalogue that will be offered for sale.
This year the sale runs from April 6th – 8th at the Newmarket complex in New South Wales
