IS IT ZAAKI'S DOOMBEN CUP TO WIN OR LOSE?

By Graham Potter | Wednesday, May 17, 2023

Not for the first time, the Group 1 Doomben Cup will be Zaaki’s to win or lose at Doomben on Saturday, given that the race will take place under standard weight-for-age conditions,

He did lose last year in a boil-over result which saw Zaaki’s bid for back-to-back wins in the Doomben Cup (he beat Toffee Tongue by an incredible seven length margin in the 2021 edition of the event) upended in no uncertain terms when he was relegated back to third place by Huetor and Maximal to finish as a beaten $1.24 favourite in a race where the betting was $16 bar one.

So, with regard to Zaaki, which part of history will repeat itself on Saturday … the facile win, or the defeat?

Zaaki currently tops the betting boards at $2 with the Chris Waller trained Kovalica ($7.50) the only other runner quoted under $11. Huetor, at that $11 mark, is there again … just to give punters a nudge.

In truth though, in spite of the warning posted by last year’s result, it will take a brave man to bet against the Annabel Neasham trained superstar … a fifteen-time winner with over $10 million banked in prize-money.

Never mind all of his previous successes, if you just look at the two most relevant runs of Zaaki leading into this year’s Doomben Cup … his first and second-up run this preparation … they tell a very positive story in terms of his current well-being.

A runner-up finish in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes first-up … behind no less than Giga Bite … was followed by a third successive victory in the Hollindale Stakes … his final warm-up run before the Doomben Cup assignment.

Huetor, his name is always hovering around somewhere in this story, finished second in the Hollindale to keep his name in the ‘up for consideration’ playbook for the Doomben Cup, but, although his fans might have expected Zaaki to win a little more easily there, Zaaki has clearly still cemented the right to being favourite for the Doomben Cup for the third year in-a-row.

Will age be a factor in the outcome?

Zaaki’s is an eight-year-old … five years older than the spritely, three-year-old, second favourite Kovalica, who will receive 2.5kg from Zaaki in the big race.

You have to go back twelve years to find the name of Scenic Shot (ridden by Shane Scriven for Daniel Morton) who was the last runner to win the Doomben Cup as an eight-year-old … but before you react too strongly to that fact, you should know that history makes that ‘age’ factor call against Kovalica as well.

In fact, you have to go back as much as twenty-three years to find the last three-year-old to win the Doomben Cup. That was Akhenaton, the 2000 winner, ridden by Glen Boss and trained by Bill Mitchell.

For the record Kovalica has won five of his seven starts … including the Group 2 Queensland Guineas … a great record but one which will also see him start as by far the most inexperienced runner in the race.

Only one other runner has had less than twenty-one starts and even that horse, Palmetto, has had ten more starts than Kovalica.

So, for Kovalica to strike here, he would have done an enormous job.

There was, of course, no shortage of confidence about Kovalica’s chances in the Rough Habit last week … where he was a hot favourite before, unfortunately, having to be scratched on race-day, but that was against his own age-group.

As for Huetor … there’s that name again … it should be remembered that he is in a position to do what Zaaki could not do, namely win back-to-back Doomben Cups. Rough Habit was the last horse to do that … Rough Habit, in fact, won it three straight times in 1991, 1992 and 1993.

Of course, apart from these main fancies, there are currently ten other runners set to face the starter in this Saturday’s Doomben Cup.

With so much going on in the lives of the three runners that top the betting boards though, just about all of the remaining runners are flying under the radar … which can be a recipe for serving an upset result.

All of the pieces of the Doomben Cup puzzle will finally fall into place on Saturday.

If nothing else. it is a very intriguing race.

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