Odeon (NZ) (Zacinto) will start his 10th racing campaign in search of breaking the million-dollar barrier at Flemington on Saturday.
The son of Zacinto has been a wonderful servant for Simon Zahra, who purchased Odeon for approximately $100,000 after failing to meet his NZ$120,000 reserve at the 2015 New Zealand Bloodstock Ready to Run Sale.
The eight-year-old gelding has collected $951,035 in prizemoney for connections, winning seven races from 51 starts from 1400 to 2000 metres, with his two most recent victories at Listed level.
“We’ll hopefully get him past the million-dollar mark on Saturday, he does go well fresh,” Zahra said ahead of the $130,000 Kennedy Handicap (1400m) where Jamie Mott booked to ride him at 57kg.
Mott has ridden Odeon twice, both times in his second racing campaign, guiding him to victory in the 2017 Mornington Guineas (1600m) and then controversially denied in the stewards’ room in the Listed Port Adelaide Guineas (1800m) at Morrphettville a fortnight later.
“We booked Jamie Mott as he’s a heavier-weight rider, he knows the horse from his three-year-old days and I just like the way he rode him, getting him to relax and find the line,” Zahra said.
Odeon has had three jumpouts ahead of his return to the races having not raced since finishing sixth in the Listed Winter Championship Final (1600m) at Flemington on July 3. He galloped over 1000 metres on Tuesday morning, clocking 1:11.72 with his final 400 metres in 25.73 seconds.
“We bypassed the spring with him as he is getting a bit long in the tooth,” Zahra said.
“He’s been in work a while, it’s just taken a bit to get the weight off him. We took him to Werribee last week for a jumpout over 1100 metres and he trialled up nicely and his piece of work on Tuesday morning was nice.
“We might back him up in the Lord Stakes over 1700 metres at Caulfield on Boxing Day which he won a couple of years ago as there’s not too many options for him after Saturday.”
