Rodd times it just right on Zipping

By Paul Pickering
MICHAEL Rodd thought he had left his run too late on Zipping in Saturday’s Sandown Classic (2400 metres), but the jockey was delighted to be proven wrong.
Zipping ($2.05 favourite) stormed home from last at the turn to overhaul Douro Valley ($11) near the line at the newly named Betfair Park Hillside track.
In doing so, the seven-year-old gelding defended his 2007 title and became the first horse to win the race twice since it was moved to Sandown from Williamstown in 1965.
Zipping clocked the fastest final 200 metres sectional of the day to snatch the win for trainer John Sadler and owner Lloyd Williams.
“Coming around the turn I gave him a squeeze and I thought I might have left it a little too late,” a jubilant Rodd said. “But the final furlong is the best part of his race, so I just had to keep at him.”
Rodd’s patience was rewarded, while the group 2 victory capped a successful spring campaign for Zipping, who finished third behind Littorio in the Turnbull Stakes, was edged out by Maldivian in the Cox Plate and ran a luckless ninth in the Melbourne Cup.
Douro Valley was almost as impressive, sitting just off the lead in the back straight before surging bravely to the line.
Trainer Danny O’Brien was buoyed by Douro Valley’s run and is now likely to send the Yalumba Stakes winner overseas for the $2.8 million Hong Kong Vase on 14 December.
Kiwi gelding Red Ruler finished another three-quarters-of-a-length back in third place.
Earlier, Kerrin McEvoy piloted emerging three-year-old Caymans ($3.20 favourite) to a two-length victory over Marveen in the Sandown Guineas (1600 metres).
It was McEvoy’s second of three wins for the afternoon, and the second triumph for the Sheikh Mohammed-Peter Snowden owner-trainer duo – after Yesterday’s comfortable victory in the Le Pine Funerals Stakes (1400 metres).
Snowden was excited about Caymans’ prospects next autumn. “He’s still a big baby and he does things wrong, but he’s improving with every start and this is a good race – and an excellent one to have on his record,” he said.
Rodd scored his first win of the day on Captain Bax in the Kevin Heffernan Stakes (1300 metres).
The Brian Mayfield-Smith-trained four-year-old Gran Sasso held off all challengers in the Tony Bourke Plate (1300 metres). Attendance at the meeting was 11,471.