By MIKE DILLON
Brian York was impressed with Zareyev's winning run in Saturday's $A140,000 Tulloch Stakes, but not enough to switch from Danamite for this weekend's $2 million AJC Derby.
York and Zareyev were the undoing of Danamite's chief Derby rival, Universal Prince, with their Tulloch win in a shock result, but York is staunch on Danamite this week.
But watching the video replay, there is little doubt that York would have been equally impressed by Universal Prince with an eye to the 2400m on Saturday.
With York and Zareyev in front, Justin Sheehan settled Universal Prince second last in a strung-out field, giving away an almost impossible start.
When he first started making his run in the home straight, Universal Prince looked no chance for even a place, but he was so relentless he got to within half a length of the winner.
He was almost a fraction one-paced, but that could be to his advantage over 2400m at Randwick.
Sheehan was disappointed with the result.
"He walked out of the gates, even worse than he did last week.
"They've run nearly a second faster than they did in the Rosehill Guineas last week, so I've got to be happy with the run.
"No horse can sustain a run down the outside from the 800m and he came to the end of his run at the 100m. He'll go zip in the Derby, don't worry about that."
Zareyev gave Gai Waterhouse a huge day on top of her $A2.5 million Golden Slipper victory with Ha Ha.
The Zabeel colt is out of joint Filly Of The Year Olga's Pal and cost Waterhouse $160,000 at the Karaka sales.
The current champion Sydney trainer has yet to win the Derby at Randwick, unlike her late father, Tommy Smith, whose 35 Derby wins overall included AJC success with Playboy (1949), Tulloch (1957), Summer Prince (1962), Summer Fiesta (1963), Prince Grant (1965), Silver Sharpe (1970), Imagele (1973), Great Lover (1976) and Kingston Town (1980).
There is a strong suggestion that Waterhouse will give the Zareyev ride to Jim Cassidy, the same winning combination that took Saturday's Golden Slipper.
Racing: York stays with Danamite for Derby
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