At her second career race start, Zia has given her trainers Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott their first ever Bill Carter Stakes winner at Doomben, after Time Clark gave the two-year-old filly a peach of a ride.
The daughter of Zoustar won on debut at Canterbury before taking the trip across the border into the Sunshine State to take on the Listed Bill Carter, where she jumped as a $5 equal-second favourite with online bookmakers.
As usual with the Waterhouse & Bott runners, Zia flew out of the barriers and used her early toe to settle on the rail behind the tearaway leader Szabo, and once the leader wobbled of the rail on the home bend, Clark pushed the button and the filly put up two lengths on her rivals with 200m to go and from then on, the race was over.
Much like she did last start, Abounding finished second and was very good after having to travel three-wide no cover for the entire trip, while the debutant from the Tony Gollan yard Certainlycan finished off with an eye-catching burst in between runners to pick up third.
2023 Bill Carter Stakes Replay – Zia
With Gai Waterhouse staying in Sydney, Adrian Bott spoke post-race about the nice win of their undefeated filly.
“The ultimate professional as we saw today. She's so tough.” Bott said of his filly.
“From a wide draw that was a little bit concerning but she was able to overcome that with the natural speed that she's got, and Tim was able to put her in a nice positive position.
“She had to do all the chasing with the good speed, but she was able to take the rails run and she was really strong late.
“She looked out on her feet the last furlong, but she is a tough filly and dug deep and responded.”
Tim Clark managed to pick up two of the first three winners at Doomben, and he spoke post-race about his win on Zia.
“She's a really nice filly. Didn't ride her first-up but I was lucky enough to get on her today and overcome a wide draw,” Clark said.
“We came across and got in behind the leader and slipstreamed behind the leader and had a nice run.
“Just got a little baulk on the turn but the was just waiting up the straight for something to come at her and whens he felt the second horse really coming to her she really responded and on the line I thought she was drawing away from them.
“Further is an option. Obviously jumped up in class quickly from a midweek maiden to a stakes grade race. No easy feat that and plenty of options for her.”