Galileo Stayer Wins Zipping Classic

Born in the last crop of Australian bred foals by champion sire Galileo, six year-old gelding Sertorius (6g Galileo x Pretty Penny, by Encosta de Lago) has been in career best form this spring and landed his biggest prize to date when taking the Group II MRC Zipping Classic at Sandown on Saturday.

Prepared by Jamie Edwards and Bruce Elkington, Sertorius was second in the Group III VRC Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington after winning the Bendigo Cup and was well fancied to give race favourite Precedence a run for his money.

He did that and more in cruising home to win the 2400 metre staying test by two lengths, his overall record now nine wins and 10 placings from 25 starts with prizemoney topping $800,000.

"We’re just rapt,” Jamie Edwards said,

"For a small stable like us, we’ve had a tough time over the past 12 months and this has just topped the year off.

"He deserves to be put away now and we can raise our sights in the Autumn.”

A $100,000 Inglis Premier Yearling Sale purchase from the draft of Glentree Downs, Sertorius is a half-brother to stakes-placed Fortune of War and I Am Titanium being the best of three winners from stakes-placed Encosta de Lago mare Pretty Penny.

Pretty Penny has a yearling colt to follow by High Chaparral, but no foal this year after having a year off in 2012.