The highs and lows of racing: Zahra’s dream Derby Day as Prebble opens up on life-changing fall
When Zahra saluted on red-hot favourite Getta Good Feeling in the Wakeful Stakes and Warnie in the race named after champion hoop Damien Oliver, Elyse thought her husband may have peaked too early. She was wrong.
Zahra had the $2 million Derby in his keeping after his rivals allowed him to get away with cheap mid-race sectionals in the lead on $2.45 favourite Observer, whose only perceived weakness leading into the event was his ability to run a strong 2500 metres.
He did not need to. The staying test became a sprint home – where the best horse in the race had a head start.
“He took luck out of it,” Maher said after winning his first Victoria Derby. “He’s riding on the crest of a wave. There’s no one riding any better.”
A noted celebrator, Elyse struggled to hide her emotions as Zahra returned to the enclosure.
“Oh my God, I’m so proud of him,” she said repeatedly to her girlfriends, who had been an outlet for her excitement. Without them, “I’d probably tackle him out there”, she said with a laugh.
“Because it’s Cup week, Mark’s like, ‘I’ll have a quiet night’,” Elyse said of her evening plans. “I said ‘I’m going to go home with you, let’s have a quiet dinner’. I am not sure that’s what’s going to happen now. Stay tuned.”
Trainer Sam Freedman congratulates Zahra after a dream result.Credit: Getty Images
Zahra, who won the 2022 Melbourne Cup on Gold Trip, is riding the topweight Al Riffa on Tuesday.
The Derby win came 40 minutes after he and Tentyris romped home in the Coolmore Stud Stakes, a $2 million race but worth many times more to the breeding industry.
By blitzing the best three-year-old sprinters in the country, Tentyris is now worth tens of millions of dollars as a future stallion, according to the managing director of Godolphin Australia, Andy Makiv.
The relief was palpable for Sam Freedman, who wiped away tears of joy while celebrating with his father and training partner Anthony in the mounting yard.
Godolphin will consider sending the colt on international missions to Royal Ascot and Dubai to further enhance his price tag, but Tentyris’ long-term future is off the track.
Zahra gives a trademark fist pump as he returns to the mounting yard.Credit: Getty Images
Zahra’s purple patch stole the attention away from one of the other key storylines to emerge from the day – global giant Godolphin’s success under its new trainer model.
The Blue Army parted ways with James Cummings earlier this year, opting to farm out 200 horses worth between $40 million and $50 million to nine different trainers. Tentyris and Observer are both in different yards.
“With any change comes pressure, and we’ve had a great spring that’s made the change a lot smoother for us all,” Makiv said.
Pride Of Jenni broke the heart of her rivals, such as Sydney star Fangirl, rounding out another bonanza day for Maher.
“I just want to give her a pat and a hug and slap Dec on the back,” the emotional trainer said.
It was a welcome return for Bates who lost the ride on Pride Of Jenni last year after a disappointing Cox Plate, but the Irishman said he had an uneasy feeling before the race.
“She cantered around to the gates so relaxed which is actually a bit unlike her so I was a bit unsure coming around but after a hundred metres in the race I knew we were winning. “’It’s a movie I would be happy to watch over and over. She’s something special.”
Prebble opens up on his long road back
Danny Russell
Apprentice jockey Tom Prebble has opened up about the devastating moment he learnt he would not return to riding after a race fall had left him without feeling below his chest.
The son of Melbourne Cup winning hoop Brett Prebble and Maree Payne explained that his horse, Pulveriser, stumbled on a wet track at Warrnambool in September, causing him to be speared head-first into the ground.
Tom Prebble (centre) with his aunt, Michelle Payne, and his father, Brett Prebble.Credit: Getty Images
He suffered severe damage to his T5 vertebrae and has been confined to a wheelchair. He was trackside at Flemington on Derby Day alongside his father as jockey Mark Zahra reigned supreme on the track, winning the group one Coolmore Stud Stakes on Tentyris and the group one VRC Derby on Observer.
“I think I was heavily sedated,” Prebble told Nine of the aftermath of the fall. “I can’t really remember, but obviously I couldn’t feel anything from the waist down.
“I wasn’t sure what really happened. There was a lot of emotion. I was planning on being back riding the next month. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case when they broke the news.
“I still can’t feel anything because of the T5 – I’ve got no sensation, and it’s been two months now.
“It was no fault of anyone. He [the horse] stumbled, and he went head-first and so did I. Unfortunately, from then on, I couldn’t feel any below my chest.”
Prebble, 23, told Nine’s Eddie McGuire that the spinal injury had felt like a “death sentence” at the time, but he did not hold any grudges against racing.
He said he still wanted to remain involved in the sport that had given his family so much over the years.
His mother was a successful jockey in her own right and his aunty, Michelle Payne, won the Melbourne Cup on Prince Of Penzance 10 years ago.
“I’d love to still be a part of it, like I’ve come today,” he said.
“There’s horses I love, [and] there’s trainers I love to cheer for, so I’d love to stick a part of the industry, that’s for sure.
“But at the moment, I’m not home yet, and I’m still probably taking everything day by day… I’m not even thinking the next week, to be honest with you.”
Prebble said he was still being treated at the Royal Talbot Rehabilitation Centre, following surgery at The Alfred hospital on his spine following the devastating fall.
“I’m there to the end of the month, and then [I’ll] hopefully move home to mum’s house, where it’s kind of been modified for me to be suitable to live, and then from then on, just hopefully get my independence back,” he said.
Mark Zahra wins the VRC Derby on Godolphin colt Observer.Credit: Getty Images
“If there’s any rehab that could sort of get me to get a bit more sensation, I’d love to do it. I’ll fly anywhere, do anything, just to kind of get half my body back, to be honest. But, yeah, just hopefully getting that.
“I still have a little bit of hope in me, hopefully to recover, but that’s kind of dwindling away day by day, unfortunately.”
Prebble was apprenticed to his mother’s brother and sister – training partnership Patrick and Michelle Payne – and was beginning to make a mark in the riding ranks, having ridden a treble at Flemington in June and then winning the rising star series for Victorian apprentices in July.
Prebble fell during the last race at a Warrnambool Racecourse meeting on September 9 and was flown to Melbourne. The T5 is the fifth thoracic vertebra, which helps protect the spinal cord, and is located between the shoulder blades.
Zahra’s Derby Day out
Race 4: Group 2 $300,000 Wakeful Stakes – $1.60 Getta Good Feeling (trainer: Danny O’Brien)
Race 5: Group 2 $500,000 Damien Oliver – $5 Warnie (trainer: Ciaron Maher)
Race 6: Group 1 $2million Coolmore Stud Stakes – $2.90 Tentyris (trainers: Anthony & Sam Freedman)
Race 7: Group 1 $2 million VRC Derby – $2.30 Observer (trainer: Ciaron Maher)
His father Brett, who won the 2021 Caulfield Cup on Incentivise and the 2012 Melbourne Cup on Green Moon, praised his son’s determination, dedication and “just the way he conducts himself”.
“Anyone who has met him, he touches their hearts pretty emotionally,” Brett said.
Zahra put on a racing master class at Flemington, winning four races in succession, including the group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes on Tentyris and the group 1 VRC Derby on Observer.
Both colts are owned by Godolphin. Tentyris is co-trained by Anthony and Sam Freedman, while Ciaron Maher trains Observer.
With superstar hoop James McDonald riding in Sydney today, Zahra has reigned supreme in Melbourne. “He is riding on the crest of a wave,” Maher said. “No one is riding better.”
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