Australian-bred colt Zodiac Ruler is making a late run for South Africa’s Equus Champion Two-Year-Old title this season.
Prepared by Justin Snaith for leading owner Fred Crabbia, Zodiac Ruler put himself in line for the title with a breathtaking victory in the recent G2 Durban Golden Horseshoe on Vodacom Durban July day at Greyville.
Currently unbeaten in two outings, Zodiac Ruler is one of two South African juvenile winners this season by the Coolmore sire Zoffany.
Zodiac Ruler was a $17,000 Magic Millions National Weanling Sale purchase and is a half-brother to this season’s brilliant G3 winning filly Almighty Girl.He is the seventh winner from the Last Tycoon mare Sybarite, a sister to South African champion filly and five time G1 winner Laisserfaire as well as stakes-winners A Time for Julia, Time Thief, Foreplay and Personify.
He is the sixth Southern Hemisphere-bred winner by Zoffany, who is not returning to Coolmore Australia this year after serving a huge book of 213 mares last spring.Zoffany’s first Northern Hemisphere crop of foals are now three and include nine individual stakes winners including five Group winners.
They include G1 German 2000 Guineas winner Knife Edge, G2 Royal Lodge Stakes winner Foundation and the filly Architecture, runner-up in the G1 Epsom Oaks and G1 Irish Oaks.A son of former champion sire Dansili, Zoffany reeled off five wins in his first seven starts as a juvenile including a victory in the G1 Phoenix Stakes.
At three he had the misfortune to be in the same generation as the mighty Frankel but came closest to upsetting the unbeaten champion when he ran him to three parts of a length in the G1 St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot.Zoffany was also second in the G1 Prix Jean Prat and since retiring to stud has become one of Coolmore’s most exciting young sires.
