Buy of the Weekend: $65k Zany Girl Tassie’s new rising star

Prime Thoroughbreds continued their stellar start to the 2-year-old season with $65,000 Tasmanian Magic Millions purchase Zany Girl (Needs Further) remaining unbeaten with an impressive performance in Sunday’s Listed Elwick Stakes at Hobart.

This exciting daughter of Needs Further made it three wins from three starts in Hobart, leading home the trifecta for her trainer Stuart Gandy in the Listed 2-year-old feature.

The talented filly displayed blistering acceleration, storming home from just off the speed to defeat a fast finishing Crack The Shutters (Alpine Eagle) by 0.4l, with a further 1.2l back to Geegees Missile (Wordsmith) in third.

“She’s got a terrific turn of foot, I don’t think it would matter where she was in the run,” Gandy said.

“She had come on from her last run. They were all presented in fantastic order. I couldn’t be prouder really. I’m proud of the team.

“I think her form tells you how good she is. She has a very good turn of foot. Probably one of the best turns of foot of a 2-year-old I have trained. She’s not big and I was concerned early on that she needed another hand on her but I don’t think it really matters. She has a long stride and a good turn of foot. When Darmanin says go, she goes.

“They are by three different sires and they are all champions in their own right. The second horse is going to be something really, really special. The third horse needs to draw a gate but she’s going super too. It doesn’t get much better.

“I’m just absolutely privileged to have such nice horses.”

The win continued a massive weekend for Joe O’Neill’s Prime Thoroughbreds who had Bivouac filly Cavalry Girl dominate her rivals at Flemington at just her second start on Saturday, after finishing second behind Blue Diamond fancy Cherish Me (Brazen Beau) on debut.

“Zany Girl’s a good filly,” O’Neill said.

“I don’t think there is a lot between her and Cavalry Girl. She will go to the Tasmanian Magic Millions on the 2nd of February and then she will go to the Gold Sovereign Stakes, all being well. Obviously, 2-year-olds can go off but she is very sound and she has very good confirmation. I think I only had one horse vetted at the sales last year. I said, she’s the one I want to buy so I had her vetted and I bought her and she is a fantastic filly. She has won all three Tasmanian 2-year-old races this season.

“She’s as good a 2-year-old as I’ve had in Tasmania. I’ve won all the good juvenile races down there. I’ve won three Magic Millions, I’ve won the Elwick Stakes, I’ve won the Gold Sovereign but this filly is as good as any of them.”

One of the most pleasing aspects from O’Neill’s perspective is that she was able to overcome trouble in each of her three starts to date.

“Nothing has gone right for Zany Girl at her past two runs,” O’Neill said.

“She has missed the start, and got to the wrong part of the track and she still managed to come out and beat them.”

Highlighting the strength of Tasmanian 2-year-old form, last year’s winner of the Elwick Stakes, also trained by Gandy, Geegees Mistruth (Wordsmith) subsequently went to Melbourne and placed in the G3 Quezette S. and the G3 Champagne S., before finishing third in the G2 Thousand Guineas Prelude at Caulfield.

“The horse she beat was actually Geegees Mistruth’s full sister,” O’Neill said. “When you get a good 2-year-old down there they can be quite useful, and this one is a very good 2-year-old.”

O’Neill purchased Zany Girl from the 2024 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale for just $65,000 from the draft of Armidale Stud, where her sire Needs Further stands. O’Neill indicated it was a close resemblance to former topline 2-year-old French Braids (Flying Spur) that caught his attention at the sale.

“We had a filly years ago, Billy Mitchell and I, called French Braids who won the Silver Slipper and who should have won the Golden Slipper,” O’Neill said.

“She won the first $1 million race in Sydney called the Heroic Championship, way back in 2000. She’s a lot like her. She is very well put together, she has lovely attitude, a beautiful confirmation and a wonderful attitude. She’s also very strong through the hindquarters and chest. She’s not a big filly but that doesn’t worry me, it never has. Snippets’ Lass, the mother of Snitzel and Hinchinbrook was only a tiny little mare. Racehorses only have to be athletic, you don’t want a big cumbersome thing that looks like an elephant.”

An attractive nick, was also a point of interest for O’Neill when inspecting Zany Girl as a yearling. She is the third winner from four to race from the Ladoni (GB) mare Isn’t Life Strange, who is a half-sister to stakes winners Life To The Full (Savoire Vivre {GB}) and What Life Brings (Savoire Vivre {GB}). When crossed with Needs Further, Ladoni mares have produced 6 winners, 2 at stakes level from just nine runners.

“Ladoni, he’s a son Danehill, and the Whishaw’s brought him out to Tasmania years ago,” O’Neill said.

“He’s a good broodmare sire and if you look at the cross with Needs Further, it is very potent.

“She’s also by a very good sire, I mean he had Mystic Journey who was a champion 3-year-old. He can get a nice horse, Needs Further.”

 

Article c/o The Thoroughbred Report, Thomas Baddock