Vaughan Marshall’s Zinedine stirred the blood like no other two-year-old in Cape Town so far this season when annihilating the opposition in sensational style at Kenilworth on Saturday.
Var colt namesake Zinedine Zidane (left) chats to Ronaldo
Michael Clower writes on www.goldcircle.co.za that the 11-10 newcomer led from the gate and stretched whenever anything threatened to come near her. When M.J. Byleveld looked round inside the final furlong he could have done with a pair of binoculars. As it was he passed the post five lengths clear in a time only a tenth of a second outside Big Mistake’s class record.
Vaughan Marshall – promising sort on his hands
Vaughan Marshall said: “It’s very exciting to have a horse like this and the nice part is that he will go a mile. We have high hopes for him.”
In the Gold Medallion at Scottsville? “We haven’t really thought about anything like that,” Marshall answered. “We will go slowly, slowly – it’s early days yet.”
But seemingly Ken Truter, Mike Fullard and James Drew have richer fish to fry because the first-named explained that they put the colt through the CTS ring 13 months ago to qualify for the R5 million races.
Ken Truter -part owner
The trio bought the dam (Right Royal Diva by Stratum) in Australia in 2011 but she was bitten by a snake after winning first time out and was never the same again. Seemingly the snake venom affected her heart. They sent her to Var but the foaling took so much out of her that she had to be rested for a year and an attack of colic then killed her. But her legacy lives on and, as Truter said: “A horse like Zinedine is what we are all in this game for.”
Zinedine Yazid Zidane O.L.H., A.O.M.N., nicknamed ‘Zizou’, is a French retired professional footballer and current manager of Real Madrid
