Queen Zou’s Rich Hill Mile magic pays back trainer Stephen Marsh’s faith

Queen Zou claimed the biggest win of her career in the Rich Hill Mile. Photo / Kenton Wright

One of the biggest leaps of faith of Stephen Marsh’s career is paying serious dividends with Queen Zou.

The five-year-old roared home through the middle of the pack to win the $270,000 Rich Hill Mile at Ellerslie on Thursday, adding a Group 2 victory to her ever-improving resume.

Her next stop will probably be the $500,000 Thorndon Mile at Trentham in two weeks, while she has Group 1 mares races as options later in the summer that not only have serious stake money, but also the chance to boost her future broodmare worth well past $1 million.

But while the money is flowing for Queen Zou now, when Marsh and his bloodstock consultant friend and colleague Dylan Johnson outlaid A$650,000 ($754,430) for her at the Easter sale in Sydney, there was no guaranteed return.

“She was one of the first really big purchases we made and it can be nerve-racking when you get into that end of the market,” admitted Marsh.

“But I said to myself if I want to be winning the biggest races, we need to be buying horses who can win them.

“We are lucky to have the support from owners to buy into those horses but not all of that is set in stone when you buy them.

“So she is a horse that means a lot to us and she is a really good horse.”

Queen Zou had to be on Thursday, too, as she had a wall of good horses in front of her at the top of the straight before Matt Cartwright picked the perfect path through them.

Cartwright has become Marsh’s go-to jockey, and obviously is also the regular rider for his unbeaten superstar filly Well Written.

Marsh says while their association was not planned, it comes from Cartwright’s hard work and attitude.

“When Matt got over here [from Australia] he came to us and offered to ride trackwork and not everybody does that,” explains Marsh.

“He is really diligent and gives us excellent feedback so we are loving having him on so many horses.”

While Queen Zou is clearly a Group 1 performer in waiting, there were some mysteries in the Mile, with opening favourite Smart Love fading after trailing, while Tuxedo loomed up to win but was one-paced over the last 200m, suggesting he might have blinkers added for the $1m Elsdon Park Aotearoa Classic on January 24.

Checkmate’s late-charging third in the Rich Hill took him to equal $5 favourite alongside Hinekaha for the Aotearoa Classic, our richest four-year-old race.

Queen Zou’s victory continued a stunning black-type season for Marsh, and he has leading hopes in many of our richer races over the summer as he goes from strength to strength in the training ranks.

“It has been a very satisfying last couple of years but it comes down to a lot of support,” says Marsh.

“You need horses and to buy those horses you need owners, and then you need great staff to look after them.

“So it is a huge team effort and it satisfying when it all comes together.”

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.