Saturday's $200,000 Group II Blamey Stakes at Flemington proved bittersweet for the champion trainer as Darren Weir who cheered home the winner Humidor while he was left scratching his head over the failure of short-priced favourite Tosen Stardom (Jpn) who tailed off last.
Making his first start since failing in the Melbourne Cup after stretching the neck of Winx in the Cox Plate, Humidor came from last under Mark Zahra in the five-horse field to defeat outsider Cool Chap (High Chaparral) by half a length with another three-quarters of a length back to Hellova Street (Helike) in third. (photo Darryl Sherer ).
"He (Tosen Stardom) ran well below par, he looked to travel too fierce and not relax," Weir said.
"I'm not sure what to do with him now, he is a great galloper but he didn't go well today.
"But from the Humidor point of view it was a terrific win and he is in for a good campaign.
"Humidor will go now to the Doncaster, he has had a great preparation towards that.
"Ideally I didn't want to see him lay in late but he can be tricky like that."
Winner of the Group 1 VRC Australian Cup and Group 1 VRC Makybe Diva Stakes, Humidor advances his record to 7 7 2 from 24 stats with earnings of $2,604,415
Bred by Jomara Bloodstock, Humidor is out of winning Zabeel mare Zalika, who is the dam of four winners from five foals to race and a half-sister to Stakes winner Heart Ofthe Desert.
A $400,000 yearling, Zalika is a sister in blood to Group II winner Lafleur, the dam of stakes winner Papillio and Amaryllis.
Zalika is a granddaughter of the champion Habibti a half-sister to the great broodmare Eight Carat.
Zalika has a yearling colt foal by Makfi, which failed to make his $250,000 reserve at Karaka, and filly foal by Shooting To Win.
She was covered by Tavistock last spring.
