He put the writing on the wall with a dominant three length victory at Kensington on debut and the John O’Shea prepared Zoukerino ($6.50) has taken the next step by winning the Listed Rosebud for three-year-olds at Rosehill Gardens at just his second race outing.
The Snitzel colt powered to the line late to defeat Godolpin’s Spacewalk ($4) by a short head with the other Godolphin runner Troach ($11) a further length and a quarter back in third.
It was a stirring go at the finish with no less than seven runners within three lengths of each other. Jockey Brenton Avdulla was able to squeeze through a narrow opening with 200m to go and lift his mount over the line.
O’Shea was full of praise for both horse and jockey.
“That’s a very, very good performance to do that at his second start in very good company,” O’Shea said.
“Overcome a bit of adversity and he was so strong through the line. Brenton has got so much confidence in him and he just rode him beautifully and patient. He’s backed this horse.”
After trialling as early as January in his two-year-old season, O’Shea had to exercise patience to ensure he was doing the right thing by the horse. Zoukerino had four trials before winning when facing the starter for the first time at Kensington on July 20.
“I resisted the temptation to run him in the autumn. I said to the ownership group ‘I just reckon he’s still a prep away and if we could give him a light winter prep’,” O’Shea said.
“But he still had a little win at two which is important for his profile and he’s come on so nicely from his win.
“I thought we’ll take the opportunity and see if we can’t get a little bit of black type early in his career.
“Today was a pretty important race for him to see if he’d made the transition and I think we’ll just get him home and see how he pulls up and give him the opportunity to have another run later in the season.”
Hoop Avdulla is now two from two in the irons, and has had his eye on Zoukerino for some time.
“He’s a good horse. I remember James (McDonald) trialling him probably two months ago and I basically said to my manager wherever you see this horse, I just want to stick with him,” Avdulla said.
“I was lucky enough to lob on him on debut and he did it with plenty in hand and today was a hot little race.
“No doubt there’s still plenty of improvement in him.”