Zipping Daria jags box one in Oaks final
The South Australian Oaks will take place Thursday night, with a high quality field to take part in the $25,000 to winner final. Three heats were run last Thursday at Angle Park, which have led to the strong field of eight that has been assembled. Heat one went the way of little known Molly Irish, who is trained by South Australian Rob Harnas, who was able to defy the odds and lead all the way with a soul stirring victory from box seven. Yariho Bale took out heat two with the quickest time of all the heats, as she showed real field sense to put herself into a winning position, before running away in a cracking 30.42. Heat three went to Miss Scallywag, who has been a real revelation in the last few weeks, finding some terrific form. She was professional in her win, leading all the way from box seven in 30.63. Zipping Daria who is trained by local South Australian, Ed Burrett will be hoping to make the most of box one in the final, after running second to Yahiro Bale. Ed was understandably quite pleased with the favourable box draw.
“Realistically I thought she needed box one or two to have any chance, if she drew out wide I would have given her no chance at all because of her lack of mid race pace. She’s had 1 start from box 1 and won, so she knows how to handle it. I’m a little worried she might run off on the first corner a bit but what can you do? You would rather have box one than the eight that’s for sure.” said Ed Burrett.
Zipping Daria came out nicely in her heat run from box seven, but was outpaced midrace. Despite this, she ran home strongly and took some ground off the eventual winner in Yahiro Bale.
“She jumped well but she just doesn’t have that turn of foot, so she caught out wide most of the way. Obviously she ran home really well, but it’s not really a track that you want to be out wide. I was happy, I just wanted to get through to the final.”
Ed had been keen on buying Zipping Daria for a few weeks after seeing some impressive runs interstate. After his initial request was denied, he tried again and was able to acquire her.
“I asked a few weeks prior if any of the litter was for sale and they said no. I had seen a few replays where she was getting lots of checks but wouldn’t throw in the towel, something I really like with bitches. I asked again and put in an offer which they accepted. She didn’t settle in great but this week she has been better. She came over in amazing order.”
The week will be no different for Zipping Daria, as she prepares to hopefully land Ed, his first group winner.
“She’s just had a free gallop and 15 minute walk each day, so she will do that again tomorrow (Tuesday) and on Wednesday she will just have the walk again. I”m mindful of not doing too much with her because she’s already looking for 600m now so I don’t want to put too much work into her and she loses that pace.
In what is a particularly strong and even final, Ed doesn’t have a definite opinion on the race but he does think their are a couple of strong chances.
“Seven, Six and Four have the most speed, if the five began it would probably be impossible to beat. I thought Tony’s dog (Miss Scallywag) was really good last week and I thought the two (Ava Blazer) could really improve, so they are probably the two.”
The final is set to be run at 8:34pm local time on Thursday
