Pakenham trainers Emma-Lee and David Browne will be hoping for a rinse and repeat effort from smart four-year-old Le Zebra (NZ) (Rip Van Winkle) when he contests the VRC Season Premiere Race Day Plate (1620m) at Flemington on Saturday.
The son of Rip Van Winkle was a dominant five length winner at the same track last start in three-year-old company and will take on older gallopers now that the new season has commenced.
“He’s really well,” David Browne told RSN. “He’s basically just repeated the same process again with him from his last start, and he’s extremely well and hasn’t had a setback at all. So it would be just nice to see him repeat again if we can.
“He is up against older horses this time around and it’s all a bit different. But I suppose we’ll see how we go.”
Browne had been confident Le Zebra would run well last start but the trainer was shocked by the wide margin his charge put on the field.
“I thought he’d run well. But there’s winning and then there’s winning like that,” Browne said.
“He had plenty left in the tank. 200m from home, he hadn’t even come off the bridle.
“I was surprised that he was that good, but he’s always showed us so much and it’s just been frustrating with how much growth and development he’s had.
“He was only 15.1 and now he’s 16.2 almost. In the 12 month growth period he’s changed into a completely different shaped horse so I think he just needed time.”
Premiership-winning jockey Damian Lane sticks with the grey gelding, who has drawn ideally in barrier 6.
“I think drawing like that, hopefully we’re in the right spot to get a drag into it or end up just outside the speed,” Browne said.
“I’m confident he’s going to run a good race. If he goes and repeats again, then you’ve got a few good targets you can aim for during the spring. I think even if he runs in the first three, you’ll find nice races to win.
The Brownes are chips in on the family of Le Zebra, who is out of the My Halo mare Angel Del Dinero, who was runner up in the Gr.3 Desert Gold Stakes (1600m) at Trentham.
Le Zebra is the fourth winner from five foals to race out of Angel Del Dinero, who is also the dam of the Brownes’ five-race winner Bifrost, a son of Turn Me Loose, who won at Geelong last week. The Brownes bought Bifrost for $40,000 at Karaka 2020, followed by the $60,000 purchase of his half-brother Le Zebra two years later from the draft of Windsor Park Stud.
Adding to their investment in the family, the Brownes secured Angel Del Dinero for $26,000 in an online auction on gavelhouse.com.
