Ken Casellas | Photo: Gloucester Park Harness Racing
Dylan Egerton-Green is at the forefront of Western Australia’s young trainers, and he left Gloucester Park on Friday night glowing with pride at achieving his first Group 1 training success.
He produced Zephyra in splendid condition and drove the youngster with aggression and supreme confidence to score a runaway victory in the $100,000 TABtouch Diamond Classic for two-year-old fillies.
Zephyra’s win gave the 29-year-old Egerton-Green his seventh Group 1 driving success and his 820TH winner in a burgeoning career.
It was a particularly symbolic win, with Zephyra following in the footsteps of her dam Tricky Styx, who won the Diamond Classic in June 2014 when Aiden De Campo brought her home with a powerful burst to get up and snatch victory by a head over Soho Tokyo.
Egerton-Green drove Tricky Styx at four of her 79 starts for a win at Gloucester Park in June 2017, and he has driven Zephyra at all of her six starts for four wins, two seconds and earnings of $92,216.
Zephyra was bred by Northam trainer Jesse Moore and his wife Maree, who race the filly in partnership with their daughter Hayley.
Moore prepared Zephyra for her first three starts before he transferred the filly to Egerton-Green’s Banjup stables. “She was going good, but I was having bad foot troubles with her,” said Moore. “And Dylan has done a wonderful job with her.
“One bloke in particular I’d like to thank is Mike Williams, who played a very big part with Tricky Styx, who wanted to kick you out of the cart. Mike used to take her out (for her workouts), and this filly (Zephyra) was exactly the same. She was hard to handle in the early stages, and Mike was the only one who had the courage to work her on the track.
“I was having trouble with Zephyra’s feet, so I sent her to Dylan. Now, we’re hoping she can repeat the dose in the big one (the $225,000 Westbred Classic on September 16).”
Egerton-Green said that Zephyra had been troubled by an abscess in a hind hoof and then by an abscess in a front hoof. These problems have been overcome and the filly is now a picture of health.
Zephyra was the $2.90 second fancy in Friday night’s big race, with the polemarker Flametree, attempting her fifth win in a row and drawn the coveted No. 1 barrier, the $1.60 favourite. Mitch Miller sent Flametree straight to the front and she ambled through the lead time in 37.7sec. and the opening quarter in 31.1sec.
Egerton-Green drove Zephyra forward, three wide, to race in the breeze after 550m. He was content to stay there until he urged Zephyra forward in the back straight in the final circuit. Zephyra surged past a wilting Flametree 400m from home and she raced away to win by three lengths from $26 chance Spiritofanangel, who had enjoyed a perfect trip in the one-out, one-back position. The final 400m sections were run in 28.7sec. and 29.12sec. and Zephyra rated 1.58.9 over the 2130m.
“I didn’t want to race outside Flametree if she was overracing,” said Egerton-Green. “Her moderate lead time and moderate first quarter helped my decision to go forward into the breeze. Zephyra had shown that she could run a good race from the breeze (when second to August Moon).”