The Gr 1 SA Classic saw a fine victory for the Fabian Habib-trained Fire Away gelding Confederate and for jockey Craig Zackey it was something of a chance win.
However, he grabbed the opportunity with both hands and produced possibly the ride of the season.
Zackey did not have a ride in this race by the 11 o’ clock deadline for declarations on Monday 17 February. The trainer is given two hours after that deadline to find a jockey.
For a jockey not to be declared by the deadline time in a Gr 1 would probably mean the connections did not have one of the favourites and were waiting to see which top jockeys would be available after all the other horses had been declared.
It would be unusual for the country’s current leading jockey to still be available after the deadline.
However, between Craig’s agent, his father Simon, and Fabian Habib they ensured the leading jockey was not sitting in the stands.
If there is such a thing as a perfect ride then Craig Zackey went close in this race.
An old racing adage states that if a horse is able to run a race in a certain time then he or she will be hard to beat.
In the Gr 1 SA Fillies Classic there was a decent pace and an impressive 4,75 length win for the Joe Soma-trained Fiery Pegasus in a time of 114,71 seconds.
Any jockey wishing to apply the aformentioned adage would then have used Fiery Pegasus’s time in the soft conditions as the time to aim for.
Zackey led from start to finish on Confederate and the time recorded was 114,70 seconds, an almost identical time, and indeed the favourite Fire Attack was not able to catch him with his late charge.
Zackey said going down to the start had given him a lot of confidence.
He described Confederate as a huge horse, “nice and strong”, with “the most amazing action ever”, so felt he just had to be fit and ready enough to have a huge chance.
He had planned to get cover, but the horse had been overdoing it a bit down the back straight and he took the initiative to stay in front and allow him to stride out.
An expert analysis of the sectional timing of this race would be interesting as the result proved Zackey had gone at exactly the right tempo, with a charging Fire Attack getting within 0,70 lengths of him at the line but never looking likely to catch him.
