9 Mar 2009
Multiple black-type winner Zavite (Zabeel x Miss Vita) provided his champion Cambridge Stud sire with another memorable triumph when he easily won the Group 2 A$400,000 Adelaide Cup (3200m) at Morphettville on Monday with a superb staying performance.
Zavite was ridden by Nash Rawiller for trainer Anthony Cummings whose father, legendary trainer Bart Cummings, won the Adelaide Cup five times.
He becomes just the second horse to carry more than 57kg to success in this race in the last 30 years. He carried 57.5kg to victory.
Purchased for A$80,000 at the Sydney Easter Sales in 2004, Zavite has won eight races and his other victories have in the past 12 months have included the Launceston Cup, Gr. 3, over 2400m, and the Listed Australian Day Cup at Randwick.
Zavite, bred by New Zealand's Fairdale Stud, also won the Gr. 3 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington and Listed McKell Cup at Rosehill in 2007.
Zavite has now earned stakes of A$976,850 during his career. Only injury robbed him of an opportunity to contest last year's Melbourne Cup.
With the Adelaide mission accomplished, Cummings is now turning his attention to the Sydney autumn racing carnival where the BMW Stakes and Sydney Cup will be his chief targets.