Zanjabeel Draws Clear for Iroquois Score

Tested against older competitors, Zanjabeel delivered a five-length victory May 12, when he drew away from hard-luck Modem to win the $200,000 Calvin Houghland Iroquois (NSA-1) at Percy Warner Park.

The 5-year-old son of Aussie Rules, always where jockey Ross Geraghty wanted him to be, took the lead after the next-to-last fence in Nashville, Tenn., and sauntered home to his first victory in top company.

Robert Kinsley's Modem again finished second, his fifth straight runner-up result in a grade 1 race in his 10 months in the United States. Irv Naylor's Jamarjo finished third, 1 1/4 lengths behind Modem, while Grand National (NSA-1) winner Mr. Hot Stuff came in fourth.

The Iroquois, the richest race on the National Steeplechase Association's spring schedule, pitted the first four finishers from the fall's Grand National. Jamarjo did one better than his fourth in that event, which Mr. Hot Stuff won by a nose over Modem.

Zanjabeel, whose name means "ginger" in Arabic, ran on the Grand National program at the Far Hills Races and easily won the Foxbrook Champion Hurdle for Irish trainer Gordon Elliott before his sale to Rosbrian Farm and Wendy and Ben Griswold. Placed in the care of trainer Ricky Hendriks, he won another stakes race for novices two weeks later.

Hendriks sent Zanjabeel against more seasoned competitors twice this year, and he came away with second-place finishes in the March 31 Marion DuPont Scott Colonial Cup Stakes (NSA-1) and the April 21 Temple Gwathmey Handicap (NSA-2).

In the Iroquois, Mr. Hot Stuff broke sharply but surrendered the lead to handicap winner Kremlin for the first mile. After passing under the finish line for the next-to-last time, Buttonwood Farm's All the Way Jose—third in the Grand National by two noses—took the lead but fell early on the final backstretch run.

The incident placed Modem on the lead, and it appeared for a while he might break into the winner's circle under Jack Doyle. But Geraghty positioned Zanjabeel for a charge at the leader and made his move approaching the next-to-last fence.

Both jumped it and the last fence well, but Zanjabeel clearly had more energy left on a 90-degree afternoon. Second by a half-length over the last, he rolled past Modem in early stretch, steadily drew clear to the finish line, and finished three miles in 5:36.40 on firm turf.

Bred in Great Britain by Miss K. Rausing out of the Machiavellian mare Grain Only (GB), Zanjabeel improved his record to 6-5-3 from 26 starts, with earnings of $320,316.