Season Premiere Race Day Wrap

Feature win caps Dee’s dream return

Michael Dee celebrated his return to Melbourne racing with a ‘dream’ double, including Saturday’s feature event at Flemington.

The New Zealand native teamed with the Peter Snowden-trained King Of Roseau to score a third win in Victoria’s first Group race of the season, the $200,000 Group 3 Aurie’s Star Handicap (1200m).

The victory came after teaming with Bold Soul to win the day’s second event, which was Dee’s first ride in Melbourne since the Mornington Cup meeting on April 14 before taking up a two-month contract in Japan, where he rode five winners.

“It is a dream return and I’m just hopeful now that it can continue,” Dee, a 15-time Group 1 winner, said of his winning return.

King Of Roseau’s win came nine years after his maiden Aurie’s Star Handicap success, aboard Sooboog, while he also won the 2023 edition aboard It’sourtime.

Given King Of Roseau’s liking for Flemington, Snowden said it was unlikely to be his final trip to the track this season.

“Now we know he really likes Flemington there’s no doubt we’ll be back at some time through the year,” Snowden said.

“Not every horse handles Flemington down the straight, but this horse has got a bit of an affinity for it and that was a dominant win there today.”

Mark Zahra Wins More

Dee was not the only top-liner to win at his first Melbourne ride after a break with Mark Zahra following suit.

The dual Melbourne Cup winner teamed with Losesomewinmore to win the $130,000 Jockeys Day Celebration Sprint (1100m).

It was Zahra’s first ride since taking out the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes aboard Docklands at Royal Ascot and his first ride in Australia since Stradbroke Handicap Day on June 14.

He hadn’t ridden in Melbourne since the Sandown meeting 10 days earlier, where he was a winner aboard Observer.

Zahra capitalised on Craig Williams’ absence to score aboard Losesomewinmore, who made it back-to-back Flemington wins after victory on July 19 and has now four of his six starts at the track.

De Bergerac delivers for Begg

It didn’t work out for Splash Back in the Aurie’s Star Handicap, with the $2.60 favourite finishing fifth, but Grahame Begg still left the track a winner thanks to De Bergerac.

The well-related gelding scored a deserved maiden Saturday city win in the $80,000 VRC.com.au Sprint (1200m) for benchmark 74 performers.

The five-year-old went one better than his past two starts, which were both won by La Fracas, and Begg was thrilled to get a winner with a half-brother to his Blue Diamond winner Written By and full brother to Coolmore Stud Stakes placegetter C’est Magique.

“He’s always shown good ability but his brain wasn’t allowing him to put it all together unfortunately,” Begg said.

“It’s a hard call to geld a Zoustar colt, particularly as he’s a full brother to C’est Magique, who ran second in the Coolmore here, but to get the best out of him we had to make the decision.

“Going forward he’s a good, solid horse. He’s no star, but he’s very sound and each preparation he’ll keep on getting better.”

De Bergerac was ridden to victory by Tom Prebble.

Zou’s Sensational run continues

He still has some kinks in his racing style to iron out, but Zou Sensation is likely to be directed towards Black Type racing now after winning Saturday’s $150,000 Victorian Jockeys’ Association Trophy at Flemington.

The six-year-old Zoustar gelding made it three wins in a row with a gritty on-pace performance in the 1410-metre benchmark 100 event.

It followed two wins at Caulfield for Zou Sensation and co-trainer Will Larkin, who prepares the gelding in partnership with Leon and Troy Corstens, said consideration would be given to a start in next month’s Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.

“He’s definitely a horse that starting to put his hand up as one that could probably go to a Rupert Clarke in time,” Larkin said.

“We’ll probably be looking at that and, how he gets there, we’ll work it out.

“I think he’s definitely a better horse when he’s chasing and allowed to get cover, so when we go up in grade and get into those better races there’s going to be better tempo and he’s probably going to be allowed to do that.”

Waller aims true with Crossbow

Some canny placement allowed to Crossbow to break his maiden on the biggest stage of all and have Chris Waller’s name up in lights after Victoria’s first metropolitan race of the season.

The son of Better Than Ready proved too good for a small field of rivals in the $150,000 TAB We’re On BM70 Handicap (1410m) at his first Victorian start.

Crossbow atoned for a narrow defeat as favourite at Randwick on July 12, which followed a second placing at Canterbury the previous month, when he made the most of a trouble-free run to score a soft win.

Ben Melham was aboard the promising gelding, who was having only his fourth start, and said he has good options at his disposal in the future.

“He began well, he did everything right, he was a gentleman and he was just able to go through his gears nicely, rather than rushing like he had to do last start,” Melham said.

“He’s a lovely horse moving forward. He feels progressive to me and he’s got a lovely nature.

“He was solid through the line at seven (furlongs), so he’ll definitely get a mile and maybe further but I’ll leave that to the expert (Waller).”