Trainer Chris Waller has revealed that classy colt Zoustar is unlikely to contest the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas (1600m) and will instead be saved for the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m).
Zoustar is likely to have his next run in the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington on November 2. Photo by: Steve Hart
Zoustar stamped himself as a genuine star with his impressive victory in the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens on Saturday and has been well backed in the betting market for the Caulfield Guineas.
The son of Northern Meteor has been included in the nominations for all the major races during the 2013 Spring Racing Carnival, including the Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) and Cox Plate (2040m), and although Waller is keeping his options open he told Sky Racing HQ that the three-year-old was unlikely to race again before the Coolmore Stud Stakes at Flemington on November 2.
“He has obviously come back in great form from Queensland and I think that we are going to head towards the Coolmore,” Waller said.
“We are still thinking through all the options.
“You have to remember that he did only have a week out, after Queensland, so I don’t want to give him too taxing a preparation.
“Backing him up in the Caulfield Guineas Prelude would give him the chance to have a look at Caulfield before the Caulfield Guineas but he is going to have quite a heavy schedule if he was to do that.
“In that race he would have a big penalty for winning a Group 1 the other day.
“There is always the option to go to the Sir Rupert Clarke leading into the Caulfield Guineas but I think that we are best to sit and wait, give him a trial, a jump-out up the straight and turn up on Derby Day and try to enhance his value even further.
“There is a five percent chance that he would go to Caulfield and it would be based around things like looking like a very weak field.”
No horse has ever won the Golden Rose and the Coolmore Stud Stakes in the same year but Headway (2009) and Nechita (2012) won the Coolmore Stud Stakes after running in the Golden Rose earlier in their spring campaigns.
