Left: Steven Arnold enjoys the winning ride as Zipping explodes away from his rivals to take out Saturday’s Sandown Classic.By Brad Kingsbury
TEAM Williams did it again on Saturday with multimillionaire owner Lloyd Williams adding the Group 2 $401,000 Sandown Classic trophy to his already overflowing silverware cabinet after Zipping stormed home to win the feature race of the afternoon.
Williams parted company with trainer and long-standing supporter Graeme Rogerson last week, with many of his horses, including Zipping, transferred to fellow Williams devotee John Sadler.
However, the seemingly big change to the business did not cause a ripple in the operation, with Sadler scoring his first Group race win for Williams on his first day of duty with the stable.
It was Sadler’s second win in the Sandown Classic, after saddling 1990 winner Pressman’s Choice before he left for a training stint in Dubai.
Sent out as a $2.40 favourite in the 10-horse field, Zipping was ridden close to the speed set by stablemate Extend and wound up after jockey Steven Arnold got to work on him in the final 150 metres.
The six-year0old gelding is now set to become Williams’ first international runner with an autumn campaign aimed at the BMW in Sydney followed by a trip to Singapore to contest the Singapore International in May.
Williams’ son Nick praised Arnold for his superbly timed effort and said it was a major achievement for the horse to back up after finishing fourth in the Melbourne Cup only 11 days earlier.
“It was a brilliant ride. Steven timed the run perfectly,” he said.
“It’s exciting to win races like this, and for John (Sadler), who has spent so much time with this horse, it is a great achievement.”
Zipping proved too good as he came from midfield on the home turn with a strong run to convincingly beat Jukebox Johnny by one and three quarter lengths with Baughurst a further one and three quarter lengths away in third place.
It was some compensation for Arnold, who chose to ride Zipping in the Melbourne Cup rather than winner Efficient.
He became the first jockey since Rodney Griffiths in 1996 to ride successive Sandown Classic winners, having also won last year on the Lee Freedman-trained Gallant Guru.
“He didn’t begin that well but had a nice run and when he had to get going he did,” Arnold said.
Trainers Lee Freedman, Danny O’Brien and Mick Price each prepared two winners on the nine-race card, with Price’s talented three-year-old Schilling taking out the day’s other feature event, the Group 2 Sandown Guineas.
Ridden superbly by champion jockey Damien Oliver for the third of his three winners on the day, the $40,000 yearling proved too classy for early leader Masked Assassin and third placed Wind Shear.
Oliver is the most successful rider in the race since it was first run at Sandown in 1965, having previously won on Star Video (1991), Scenic Warrior (2000) and Moon Dragon (2001).
The Fashions on the Field competition was an outstanding success with Pam Charleston from Dromana taking out the main adult prize and Cooper Thompson winning the junior section.
The meeting attracted a crowd of 11,600 and also marked the last call by veteran racecaller Bryan Martin, who retired after calling the final event.
