26 Dec 2009
The outstanding staying performance produced by Zarzuela to win the Group Two Great Northern Guineas (2100m) at Ellerslie on Boxing Day edged her sire, Zabeel, ever closer to the individual black type tally achieved by his own Super Sire, Sir Tristram.
Zarzuela became Zabeel's 123
rd individual stakeswinner, a figure which is just 7 short of the 130 individual black type winners sired by the great Sir Tristram during his long and illustrious career at Cambridge Stud.
Zarzuela (Zabeel ex Star Satire, by Volksraad) was bred by David Paykel who races her from the stable of Mark Walker. The trainer is keen to return to Ellerslie at the beginning of March to tackle the $2.2 million Teleco Derby, with the Australian Oaks in Sydney a long range Autumn target.
Zarzuela was bred to be good. Her dam, Star Satire, won 5 races including the Group One Otaki-Maroi WFA Satkes. She also won the Lowland Stakes at Group Three level. This is the family of the Easter Handicap winners Silver Wraith and Silver Nymph and of Ray's Hope, another Easter Handicap winner who also won the New Zealand Stakes-GR1 at Ellerslie.
Statistics courtesy of Arion Pedigrees (
www.arion.co.nz)