Trainer Grahame Begg sees two problems confronting Zakouma in his bid to win the Mornington Cup with the promising stayer.
The Listed Mornington Cup (2400m) on Saturday offers the victor a ballot exemption into the Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) in October and Begg sees Saturday’s race as a nice stepping stone for Zakouma who is unbeaten in three runs this campaign.
But the trainer is worried about the tight Mornington circuit, while more importantly, actually getting a start in the race.
Zakouma is number 21 in the order of entry into the race which has a field limit of 14 plus four emergencies.
The final field will be declared on Wednesday.
“He’s a pretty nice horse and if he can get a run, he’ll definitely run, but that will be the challenge, getting a run,” Begg said.
“He’s so lowly rated, he’s only got a benchmark rating of 78, but he is a promising horse.
“Having a look at the form, there is a bit of a tail to the race, there’s plenty of horses that are out of form, but they’ve got a higher benchmark on previous form from previous campaigns.
“He looks like he’ll run the trip, but the biggest thing for him would be getting around Mornington because he likes to be relaxed in the early part of his races.”
Should Zakouma gain a start, Daniel Stackhouse has been booked for the ride, but if not, Begg said the gelding would instead be aimed at a benchmark 100 race over 2000m at Flemington on Anzac Day.
Begg said if Zakouma did run on Saturday and win the Mornington Cup, he would then be spelled with the Caulfield Cup in mind but added it would be unlikely for the gelding to press on too far beyond the Flemington race a week later.
“The Andrew Ramsden would be unlikely, and we would be unlikely to travel interstate at this stage,” Begg said.
“We’d prefer to just stay in our lane.”
Begg finished second in the Mornington Cup with Nonconformist in 2021, later going on to run second to Incentivise in the 2026 Caulfield Cup.
Zakouma opened his campaign with a Caulfield Heath win over 1600m before scoring over 1800m at Sandown and then over 2000m on a heavy track at Flemington most recently on March 28.
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