James Cummings and Mark Zahra have struck in the second race of the Melbourne Cup Carnival at Flemington, with Zeitung ($5.50) finishing off strongly down the middle of the track to claim the Group 3 Vanity.
The daughter of Exceed And Excel had strong formlines going into Saturday’s race, following top four finishes in Group races against three-year-old fillies in her previous three starts.
Too Darn Lizzie ($10) and Kuroyanagi ($17) took up the early lead before I Am Velvet ($15) whipped around them from a three-wide position to settle at the front of the field on a muddling tempo.
Turning for home, I Am Velvet kicked away from the field slightly, but Matisse ($7) and Lovelycut ($7) loomed large on the outside, and the former took the front by the 250m mark.
Zahra pushed the button on Zeitung at the 200-pole, and as soon as he did, the filly exploded with a swift turn of foot to chase down the leader.
By the time Zeitung hit the 50m mark, she had taken control of the race and careered away with a dominant victory over Matisse and Dominetta ($11), who filled the placings in that order.
2024 Vanity replay – Zeitung
James Cummings was on course to speak about the win of Zeitung.
“She’s been really going well this preparation and great to see that even though she stepped slow and was a little further back than Mark Zahra would have liked,” Cummings said.
“She’s run on well from back before and she was able to storm her way into the clear, run on resolutely down the outside and a Group 2 win to her page is enormous.
“We’re only a few weeks away from the Thousand Guineas, we’d have to give that good consideration with this beautiful filly.
“That’s a great start for our team at Melbourne Cup week and really she’s by Exceed And Excel.
“We held her back from stepping up to seven furlongs for quite a while and we stepped up last time, she had the wide draw and she settled wide throughout but she was very game there
“We met the winner (last start, Too Darn Lizzie) two-and-a-half-kilos better today so Mark Zarha took over, he’s one of Melbourne’s leading jockeys and he did a beautiful job.”
Mark Zahra echoed similar thoughts to Cummings in his post-race interview.
“I didn’t begin the best, but I sort of ended up in a nice spot following Matisse and just worked out perfectly,” Zahra said.
“When Matisse kicked, I wasn’t sure whether I could be able to run her down, but she was very strong, my filly.
“She had a bit of a tough run over the 1400 (metres) the other day, so it put her in good stead today. I had to be tough for the last sort of 100 and she was.”
Zeitung is a $7 chance with horse racing bookmakers in the Group 1 Thousand Guineas futures markets.
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