Lloyd Williams has capped off a great spring carnival with his sixth win in the race named after one of his great stayers, Zipping.
Williams won his fourth Melbourne Cup when his trainer Robert Hickmott saddled up Green Moon but it is the $350,000 Group 2 Deadly Design Zipping Classic (2400m), the race formerly known as the Sandown Classic, that Williams has continued to dominate.
In 2003 Legible won for Williams and then Zipping won four in a row from 2007 to 2010 but in 2012 it was Mourayan who was expected to win by most but it was stable mate Tanby under the guidance of Nick Hall who gave Williams win number six.
Hall had Tanby settled toward the rear of the field while Mourayan (Bowman) sat on a solid speed up front. Everything appeared in order until well into the straight when the front runners failed to sprint as expected and Hall and Tanby made their run from the back.
At the 300m Tanby took the lead from a tiring Mourayan with Precedence and Exceptionally in pursuit however over the concluding stage Tanby stayed strong and went on to score.
At the line the margin was three quarters to Exceptionally with a length and three quarters to Precedence in third. The overall time was 2.23.1 and the last 600m was run in 34.77.
“(Tanby) was terrific,” co-owner Nick Williams said. “Nick gave him a great ride but I must be honest, I was pretty focused on Mourayan during the run because I really thought he was a great chance, Hughy give him every chance but unfortunately he just raced a bit flat.
“Tanby was terrific and it was the sort of ride from Nick Hall that we are used to seeing, rides them quietly, comes around the outside and puts them away and he seems to be doing it with a bit more regularity these days.
“(Tanby) is a nice horse, we tried to get him into the Melbourne Cup because we thought with 53kg he was a bit of a chance.
“He is out of a terrific mare and we think he is still on the up as a horse.
“We will look at the Sydney Cup with him in the autumn, he has proved he is an out and out stayer and it was great for him to win the Zipping Classic.”
“It was great to win this race on Zipping and have the name changed and it is great to reunite with the Williams family and win it again,” Hall said.
“Lloyd said he had the horse going well, though he had him running three weeks in a row and the main thing I had to do today was get him settled and once I had him settled through the run I thought he was a good chance.”
