Kentuckiana Lodge pacer Fabrizio served up an impressive reminder of his class with a stunning win at Addington on Friday night.
Despite having a Group One winner in front of him and a 1.51 miler on his back the four-year-old showed his class by producing a brilliant display of speed and stamina.
Though Fabrizio still managed to win races and put up big performances after a brilliant winter and spring campaign his confidence dropped slightly when he didn’t enjoy right-handed racing when competing in Auckland over the summer.
The pacer trained by Cran & Chrissie Dalgety put that trip behind him in incredible style on Friday night and showed his true worth courtesy of a no-panic drive from Kentuckiana Lodge driver Sarah O’Reilly.
“We went up to Auckland and he managed race three times and gallop three times and make us look a bit silly,” Cran said.
“And that knocked his confidence a little bit, even though he was still physically going well and running pretty good races when he came back home.”
“He rushed through the grades last winter so he just needed to grow up a bit mentally to match it with the big boys and girls.”
“We have always known he is in the well-above-average category.”
"We were happy with his first up run because with the sectionals of the race he didn't have any chance."
"But we got to see what he can do on Friday night, which was very pleasing."
Fabrizio is raced by Chrissie Dalgety in partnership with Tony and Dom Zame.
The Kentuckiana Lodge clients are used to seeing their horses gallop.
And few have galloped faster in New Zealand this season than their exciting three-year-old Aegon, who the Two Thousand Guineas and Karaka Million Three-Year-Old Mile before beating some of Australia’s best three-year-olds in Australia.
With the class Fabrizio showed on Friday night, he is almost certain to give the Zames another runner at this year’s New Zealand Cup Carnival.
And with the opinion Cran has of him, like Ageon, he could be contesting some of its feature races.
“He ran 3.09 (for 2600m) at Addington earlier in the season and at the time that was a fair indication of his ability.”
“I don’t think he would have any trouble stepping up to the junior free-for-all level and races like that.”
“Tony and Dom have raced some very good horses like Aegon and Jon Snow, so it will be a tough act for us to match them.”
“But I think this fellow will win his share and we would be love to be able to win a nice race with him for them.”
Fabrizio’s splits showed back up just how classy his win on Friday night appeared.
The four-year-old stopped the clock in a 1-56.6 mile rate for 1980m, zipping home in 56.1sec (800m)and 27.8sec (400m) despite sitting parked throughout.
Fabrizio is the fourth foal and fourth winner Chrissie and the Zames have bred from Christian Cullen mare Zagami.
The others include Hundie, Punter's Dream and Rock On.
