Zoulander has a frustrating habit of missing the jump, but his manners were impeccable at Riccarton on Saturday and he duly added to his winning record.
The Gerry Harvey-bred son of Zoustar stepped well from an inside gate for rider Kylie Williams in the colours of trainers Michael and Matthew Pitman to track the pace near the fence.
The kind-natured Zoulander angled into the clear 250 metres from home and finished off determinedly to put paid to his Rating 84 rivals over 1200 metres.
“He’s like your best friend and will give you the shirt off his back – he tries all the time,” Williams said.
“He travelled nicely and needed a bit of a gap and pushed his way out and fought really hard.”
Zoulander has now won six races, five of them from the Pitman stable after breaking his maiden when prepared by Team Rogerson with Graeme still involved in the ownership.
The son of Zoustar is out of the Exceed And Excel mare Vedex and was purchased out of Westbury Stud’s draft at New Zealand Bloodstock’s National Yearling Sale by Rogerson for $240,000.
The dam is out of a half-sister to the G2 New Zealand Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes winner Balmacara and the family of the Group 1 winners Linton (Stradbroke Handicap), Sharvasti (Avondale Cup) and Santa Monica (Railway Stakes).
Vedex has an unraced Swiss Ace three-year-old filly named Vedado), a juvenile daughter of Telperion, a yearling colt by Swiss Ace and had a filly by Reliable Man and is back in foal to the multiple Group 1-winning son of Dalakhani.