Photo: bradleyphotos.com.au
Former Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m) winner Asterix took 11 races and more than a year to record his first stakes victory in Australia, but now he has gone back-to-back.
The seven-year-old added a supreme weight-carrying performance in Saturday’s A$300,000 Listed Guardian Safety Solutions Gosford Gold Cup (2100m) to his last-start success in the Gr.3 JRA Plate (2000m) at Randwick on April 18.
Asterix was lumbered with 61 kilograms on Saturday against a highly competitive Gosford Gold Cup line-up. Since weights went metric in 1972, the previous highest weight carried to victory in the Gosford Gold Cup was 59.5 kilograms by Numerian in 2022.
But Asterix was unfazed by that record-breaking task, launching an irresistible finish from second-last under expat New Zealand jockey Jason Collett.
The field bunched right up around the home turn and Asterix was held up in traffic, but Collett managed to find a way through and then unleashed him down the outside.
Asterix and Zaphod swallowed up the leader You Wahng together in the final 100m, and Asterix finished the better to win by a length.
“He’s flying,” Collett said. “I was fortunate that the tempo was great early in the race.
“He started to get into a nice rhythm down the side and we worked together from there. I got some lucky breaks, but I had the horse to do it.”
Asterix’s trainer Chris Waller was represented at Gosford on Saturday by Zane Jones, who said the New Zealand import has come into a rich vein of form after finding his feet in his new surroundings.
“He's a happy horse and is going better than ever,” Jones said. “He has strung back-to-back wins together. He is extremely underrated, but as long as he is winning, we don't mind.
“You would have to say a trip to Queensland beckons after that, his effort was full of merit.”
From a 26-start career, Asterix has now recorded seven wins and two placings and has earned A$1.27 million in stakes.
Asterix was bred by Sir Owen Glenn's Go Bloodstock and is by Tavistock out of the Shirocco mare Mourasana.
Curraghmore offered Asterix at the 2020 NZB Ready to Run Sale at Karaka, where Bruce Perry Bloodstock bought him for $450,000.
Asterix began his career in the Matamata stable of Lance O'Sullivan and Andrew Scott, for whom he won four of his 14 starts including the 2022 New Zealand Derby and the 2024 edition of the Gr.2 Avondale Cup (2400m).
– NZ Racing Desk
