Racing: Remarkable veteran maintains top form

Zipping (left) winning race 7 of last year's Sandown Classic. Photo / Getty Images

There were no thoughts of hardy 9-year-old Zipping being retired after he landed a historic fourth straight Sandown Classic victory on Saturday.

Nick Williams, racing manager for his father, owner Lloyd, said Zipping would probably be back in the autumn to defend his Australian Cup title.

Despite the deteriorating track which led to the group two 2400m weight-for-age feature being run on a heavy (9) track, a surface Zipping (A$2 fav) had never raced on before, the veteran toughed it out to win.

Well ridden by Nick Hall, Zipping had two lengths to spare over Exceptionally (A$9) with Manighar (A$5.50) a short half-head away third.

Zipping joined Lord, Manikato and Tie The Knot as the only Australian horses to win a group race four years in succession.

Lord won the group two Memsie Stakes from 1958 to 1961, Manikato the group two William Reid Stakes five times from 1979 to 1983 and Tie The Knot the group one Chipping Norton Stakes from 1999 to 2002.

Hall carried Lloyd Williams' plan to be aggressive early on Zipping to the letter, taking him to the front from barrier one in the small field of five.

Hall said it was a buzz winning on Zipping, who is in career-best form having won the Turnbull Stakes, finished second to So You Think in the Cox Plate and fourth to Americain in the Melbourne Cup before Saturday's success.

"You know what small fields are like, they can be very tactical and a bit tricky but I wasn't worried as he always had clear running and when Dan Nikolic came around [at the 1200m to take up the running on Exceptionally] I just made sure I had that option," he said.

"The cheer they [the crowd] gave him, it was outstanding.

"Lloyd has him worked out to a tee at the moment and even though I know the horse well, Eddie Cassar rides him in all of his morning track gallops and if he says he's okay, well then you know you are on a good thing."

Nick Williams said being involved with a horse like Zipping was "something you can only dream of".

"Dad's been involved in the industry for 45 or 50 years and it's fantastic to have a horse that's as tough as this and that has achieved such great things," he said.

"He's a freak of nature he's just so tough. He'll go for a break now, obviously, and we'll probably bring him back in the autumn and let him defend his Australian Cup.

"We're not making any decision on his retirement. He'll decide when he chooses to retire.

"He's done that much for us he can choose whether he wants to race or doesn't want to race."

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Sydney 3-year-old Pressday will target the Doncaster Handicap next autumn after landing a courageous Sandown Guineas victory.

The Domesday colt contested the group two event as an afterthought but showed his class on the heavy track, holding on beat Chasse to deny Darley and trainer Peter Snowden a third successive win in the 1600m feature.

Boom gelding Bigelow ran home strongly and was a length away third.

Trainer Chris Waller said he had reservations about running Pressday second-up in the Guineas after he reared in the gates and badly missed the start two weeks ago in the Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington.

He said it was only on the insistence of co-owner and keen form student Tony Muollo that he agreed to the Sandown mission.

"To Tony's credit, he pressured me into bringing him here and going the extra step," Waller said.

"He knows his form and he thought this was a soft option. It shows you've got to listen to your owners."

After Pressday's Flemington failure, Waller enlisted the assistance of trainers Peter Moody, Mick Price and Clinton McDonald to organise a barrier trial at Caulfield to give the colt the hitout he needed to step up to 1600m.

Saturday's heavy track made it more like an 1800m slog, which weighed heavily on Waller's mind, but jockey Nash Rawiller rode him confidently just off the pace in fourth place.

A group one winner of Brisbane's TJ Smith (1600m) in the winter, Pressday's class shone through in the last 200m at Sandown.

"He is a stallion so we have got to look after his value and keep building it up a bit higher," Waller said.

"We will concentrate on Sydney in the autumn where a race like the Doncaster, and the Randwick Guineas leading into that, would be ideal."

- AAP