Zielke has plenty of reasons to dream of five straight
DREAMS Aplenty is a horse that has generated a lot of buzz in the sunshine state this season, but a second-straight group three success on Saturday would announce the gelding as a star of the future.
The best type of form to take into the biggest race of your career is successive wins, and another victory on Saturday would hand the talented three-year-old a fifth-straight success.
Dreams Aplenty took out the Gunsynd Classic last month, and the horse is chasing back-to-back group titles in the Group Three Fred Best Classic at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Dreams Aplenty’s trainer John Zielke believes the horse is well-placed to make it five in a row.
“I’m very, very happy with the horse,” Zielke told HorseBetting.com.au.
“He’s done absolutely nothing wrong going into it. His blood tests and everything are coming back saying that the horse is 100 percent fit. He’s very, very well and showing no signs of wear and tear or stress.
“So we really can’t fault him on that.”
Dreams Aplenty is a $10 outsider to win the Group Three Fred Best Classic at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Barrier 3 in Gr.2 Sires Produce with Ruby❤ @LukeDittman & barrier 6 in Gr.3 Fred Best Classic with Dreams Aplenty @TiffaniBrooker to ride pic.twitter.com/HnCFzxRyS0
— John Zielke Racing (@BIGjohnZZZ) May 24, 2017
The meeting at Eagle Farm on Saturday will mark the fourth race this preparation where the gelding will get at least a three-week rest in between runs.
Zielke said the team did not design the campaign to play out that way, but believes it plays perfectly into his hands.
“We pencilled in this race a couple of weeks before (the Gunsynd Classic) because we were going back from a mile to 1400m, then he’d have to step back up to the mile two weeks later” the trainer explained.
“So the actual timing of the race couldn’t have been any better.”
The trainer said the month’s break will do wonders for the horse given it will compete for the Fred Best on Saturday and then the Group Two Queensland Guineas just a fortnight later.
“I wouldn’t have started him in a race like this if he had to back it up two weeks later. It just wouldn’t have been possible.
“I was able to freshen him for an entire week, then get him going gradually and then give him a gallop, so to speak, a good fortnight after his last run, treating it like a race start then go straight into this.”
Although a lot of trainers would relish the opportunity to take a horse into a big race seeking a quintet of wins, Zielke has a been-there-done-that confidence going into Saturday.
Having a winning run can be somewhat of a rarity for horse trainers in the modern-era, but a fifth-straight success for Dreams Aplenty would see Zielke equal a stable record of a former one-time Golden Slipper favourite, Our Civic Hope.
Zielke said going on a quality run of form is not an unfamiliar feeling.
“I had a good horse in 1994, Our Civic Hope,” the trainer said.
“He won five straight and he was Queensland’s Champion two-year-old, so I’ve done this before, it’s nothing new to me.”
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