Zaaki, last Saturday’s stunning seven-length Doomben Cup winner in Queensland, has soared 118 places to world #24 in the TRC Global Rankings. The 6-year-old, a landmark G1 winner down under for British breeder Kirsten Rausing and her Lanwades Stud near Newmarket, is one of the highest climbers of the week worldwide in the updated standings.
Trained at Newmarket by Sir Michael Stoute until the end of last season, Zaaki is now the fifth-highest ranked horse currently racing in the Southern Hemisphere and is the new favourite for October’s Cox Plate.
Satruday’s hotly contested field included multiple G1 winners Avilius, Cox Plate hero Sir Dragonet, 14-time G1 winner Melody Belle, as well as All-Star Mile winner Mugatoo and G1 Australian Oaks heroine Toffee Tongue, who finished seven lengths behind the winner (see video below).
Zaaki is the second-highest-earning progeny of the late Lanwades sire Leroisdesanimaux after Kentucky Derby and Dubai World Cup winner Animal Kingdom, and one of six winners out of the dual French winner Kesara, from the family of 3-time G1 scorer Riverqueen. The gelding is one of four Lanwades-produced horses that have won in Australia, including stakes winner Le Don De Vie and Lord Belvedere.
Purchased by owner Ahmad Alotaibi at the Tattersalls Book 2 Yearling Sale in 2016 for 40,000gns, Zaaki is now based at rising star Annabel Neasham’s Sydney stable, having been bought by Blandford Bloodstock on behalf of the British-born trainer at last year’s renewal of the Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale, for 150,000gns.
Neasham, winner of the 1,000-km Mongol Derby in 2018, is a formidable horsewoman. who has been working in Australia since 2016. She established her own training operation last summer after running the Sydney yard for Cauflield trainer Ciaron Maher, who is world-ranked 31 in partnership with David Eustace.
The ten-furlong Doomben Cup represents a first top-flight victory for the horse, a second for Neasham, and an 11th Hollindale-Doomben Cup double, following Zaaki’s G2 win at Gold Coast racecourse on his previous appearance. The gelding’s best results for Stoute include winning the G3 Diomed Stakes at Epsom in June 2019, and the G3 Stensall Stakes at York that same summer.
Rausing told Great British Racing International, “We are obviously thrilled, delighted, and grateful to Annabel Neasham who has done so well with the horse. After his previous good Group 2 win in Australia, he was always going to be fancied for this. Annabel is doing incredibly well this early in her training career.”
Reflecting on the well established Lanwades family of Zaaki, she said, “He [Zaaki] really was an outstanding yearling. I remember him very well. He was beautifully well-balanced; one couldn’t really fault him conformationally.
“I bought Kasara’s dam Kaldounya. She bred a very good filly called Persona Grata by Sir Percy who won six races, including two listed races in France for Ed Walker. Kesara herself won two races and should have won a third. She has done very well for us, breeding six winners. She has a now yearling filly by Bobby’s Kitten and is in foal to Study Of Man. I also keep three of her daughters as broodmares, so the family is well represented at Lanwades.
“He [Leroidesanimaux] was a marvellous horse and one that I was very sad to lose. He had already produced a Kentucky Derby winner in Animal Kingdom. He, himself, was a Blushing Groom sire line that works well with daughters of Sadler’s Wells, so it was really, as they say, a no-brainer.”
Rausing added, “I do have very few Lanwades-bred horses in Australia. They’ve all obviously been sold from me as yearlings at Tattersalls. Those [Zaaki, Le Don De Vie, Lord Belvedere, Wyclif and Sidereal] are the only horses that we bred that are out in Australia and they have all won, except Sedereal who has yet to run.
“Two of them have won black type and two are just knocking at the door for black type, so I would have thought we would have quite a good record relative to numbers.”