Orchestral manoeuvres in the Derby set up dream Zardozi clash for Vinery
By Chris Roots
It is a clash trainers James Cummings and Roger James have known was inevitable for a couple of months, so there is a sense of respect between the Zardozi and Orchestral camps heading into Saturday’s Vinery Stud Stakes at Rosehill.
From this side of the Tasman Zardozi, a Kingman filly bred to be a classic winner by Godolphin in Europe and sent to Australia, found her destiny winning the VRC Oaks at Flemington in the spring.
Tom Marquand punches Zardozi out to the line in the Phar Lap Stakes at Rosehill.Credit: Getty
From across the ditch comes Orchestral, a classic Kiwi-bred Savabeel filly who boasts a record of five wins from eight starts, and took the New Zealand Derby with ridiculous ease to head into Saturday chasing a fifth win in succession.
“She is very good,” said James, who trains in the partnership with Robert Wellwood.
“We know this is her biggest test because she is meeting a better field than she has met before and the Godolphin filly [Zardozi] is clearly very good as well and scares me.
“When we come over to Australia we know we need a good horse and she is just that.”
James found his filly at the yearling sales but had to be patient to secure her.
“She was the second last lot at the sale and we waited for her and paid $625,000 for her, so she wasn’t cheap,” he said. “She was worth the wait.”
There’s no surfeit of words about Orchestral from her trainer, but every one uttered has an underlying confidence about it.
Zardozi was part of a project of the racing and breeding team at Godolphin, being out of a Dubawi mare and delivered on her target with her Oaks victory, but the compact filly was always going to get better.
“Her name means laced with gold and we got that at Flemington,” Cummings said. “It was a great reward for the whole team because when you make a mating like this one, you dream of getting a horse like Zardozi.
“This race is what everyone wants to see: two queen fillies meeting. We don’t get to see races like this too often these days.
The first round of the Vinery battle went to Orchestral when champion jockey James McDonald decided to ride the New Zealand filly after winning over a mile at the Karaka Millions meeting on her in January. He had been in the saddle of Zardozi in the spring, making for a tough decision.
“She is a filly that is built like a colt,” McDonald said of Orchestral. “When I won on her I just knew I wanted to stick with her when she got here and told Roger that straight away.
“She just felt like a filly that was going to win the Derby and she did. She is very exciting.
“Zardozi is all quality as well, she is smaller but all power and a staying filly.
James McDonald always knew the ride he wanted for Saturday’s Vinery clash.Credit: Getty
“It is a pity that they are in the same year for me because they are two fillies you want to ride every time they go around.”
James knew what he had before McDonald rode Orchestral but got confirmation on that day in January.
“James rang from Hong Kong for the ride, and [was] very keen to ride her. But it was the way he spoke after the race that was exciting,” James said. “He just wanted us to get her to Australia.”
Cummings read the play when McDonald returned from New Zealand and booked Tom Marquand for Zardozi’s autumn campaign.
“The way he [McDonald] was talking about Orchestral it was obvious that he was going to stick with her if he could,” Cummings said. “We had to find someone else for Zardozi and I thought Tom Marquand would be perfect.
“He is a top class jockey and he is very intuitive in the way he rides and you saw that in the Phar Lap Stakes, when it came time to win the race he went at the top of the straight and had the race won in a couple of strides.”
Zardozi was dynamic in the Phar Lap, coming from back in the field over 1500m for her sixth win in 11 starts and it brought her to her peak at the 2000m on Saturday.
“This is a day we have been working towards since she came back and will decide what is next after Saturday because she is such a good filly, we could go in a number of different ways,” Cummings said. “We will get a good test of where she is, because at 2000m and beyond is where she excels.”
Orchestral arrived on Tuesday night and although she comes back to the 2000m from 2400m, James is confident.
“The next couple of runs in Australia will measure of how good she is, and you will see it on Saturday,” he said.
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