Nick Salutes His Little Champion

Trainer Nick Olive described jockey Kathy O'Hara as "my little champion" after she guided Zaratone to a brilliant all-the-way win in the Group 3 $125,000 race over 1100m at Rosehill yesterday. "Kathy rode Zaratone perfectly," Olive said. "This horse loves to follow the rail and we felt that the inside section of the track would be OK today. "Kathy and I have had a lot of luck together, she is my little champion."

O'Hara who is having a memorable Sydney carnival after winning her first Group 1 race on Ofcourseeican in the Coolmore Classic two weeks ago, took great satisfaction from Zaratone's win. "I'm really happy to win this race for Nick because he has been a great supporter of mine," she said. O'Hara raced Zaratone ($7) brilliantly as he led throughout to score by 21/4 lengths from the David Payne-trained pair of Winter King ($18) and Master of Design ($4.20 favourite).

Master of Design was sensationally backed from $6 to $4.20 and had every chance off the hot speed but was simply unable to make any impression on the winner. Zaratone scorched over the 1100m in 1 minute 3.03 seconds with a final 600m sectional of 33.86 seconds.

The Canberra flying machine has now won 15 races from 36 starts, an enviable record. He's a short-course specialist with eight wins over the 1100m. Olive said he may give Zaratone his chance at racing's highest level, Gourp 1 in the $350,000 The Galaxy over the Randwick 1100m in two weeks. "I'll certainly look at The Galaxy," Olive said. "It does seem a logical race to set him for. "He's got brilliant natural speed and is at his best on dry tracks. He can, run very fast sectionals and it takes something special to run him down when he is at the top of his game."

Reprinted from the Sunday Telegraph 8 April 2012.
Date published: 16/04/12