Zestful savaged the line late to deliver trainer Kris Lees a 2017 Apollo Stakes Day treble with her win in the Triscay Stakes at Royal Randwick this afternoon.

There was plenty of money for Zestful in the lead-up to the Triscay Stakes, but it looked as though it was going to be her day when she was blocked for a run at the 300 metre mark.

Jason Collett had several runs close on him before the 200 metre mark, but he eventually found clear running back on the inside and she finished over the top of Nancy and Dixie Blossoms to record a career best win.

Lees had previously won the Group 3 Southern Cross Stakes (1200m) with Le Romain as well as the Group 3 Spring Stakes (1600m) with Invincible Gem and he was clearly delighted to have finished Apollo Stakes Day with three black-type wins.

“It is important for these mares to race well in these type of races,” Lees said.

“They are well-bred mares and you need to be performing in Stakes races, so it is very satisfying.

“I’ve always thought that she has a lot of upside to her and she is going the right way.

“She really appreciates a gap between her runs and she just needed a little bit of luck in running.

“She was always going to be strong late.

“It looked a bit ugly there for a while, but he found the right path and got there when it mattered.

“She was going to be my Provincial Championships horses, but I will have to reassess.”

Collett admitted after the race that not everything went to plan during the Triscay Stakes and he thought that he was in trouble when he had to make the inside run at the 200 metre mark.

A relieved Collet was clearly pleased that Zestful was able to find the line like she did and he paid full credit to the way that she was able to balance up in such an efficient manner.

“I got on the back of Nancy and I was pretty happy, but I just sort of lost contact in the straight,” Collett said.

“It was a big effort and I have to admit that I wasn’t very confident at the 200 when I went back to the inside.

“I really had to shift ground very quickly and for her to come back under me like that says a fair bit about her.”

Nancy was unlucky not to come away with the victory first-up and Dixie Blossoms produced her usual credible performance.

2017 Triscay Stakes Results & Finishing Order

Randwick Race 9 – 13/02/2017

Place	#	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Br.	Wgt.	SP
1	10	ZESTFUL	Kris Lees	Jason Collett	–	1	53kg (cd 53.5kg)	$4.20
2	3	NANCY	Peter & Paul Snowden	Hugh Bowman	0.2L	7	57kg	$9
3	1	DIXIE BLOSSOMS	Ron Quinton	Tim Clark	0.3L	9	59kg	$4F
4	7	PRESS REPORT	Kris Lees	Ms Kathy O’Hara	0.6L	6	53kg	$17
5	12	QUEEN OF KARIBA	Joseph Pride	Andrew Adkins (a)	2.2L	3	53kg	$31
6	5	ROCKET COMMANDER	Matthew Dale	Tommy Berry	3L	4	55kg	$26
7	13	MAGIC OF DREAMS	Kris Lees	Corey Brown	3.1L	10	53kg	$21
8	14	ZARA BAY	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Jay Ford	6.1L	2	53kg	$8.50
9	6	SHILLELAGH (NZ)	Chris Waller	Brenton Avdulla	6.2L	11	53kg	$6
10	16	UNKNOWN DESTINY	John Ramsey	Blaike McDougall (a)	9.7L	8	53kg	$151
FF	2	PEARLS	John O’Shea	James Doyle	–	5	58kg	$7
–	8	DENPURR	Peter & Paul Snowden	–	–	0	–	–
–	15	SORORITY SISTER	Garry Schwenke	–	–	0	–	–
–	9	YATTARNA	James Cummings	Glyn Schofield	–	0	–	–
–	11	AMERISTRALIA	Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes	Andrew Adkins (a)	–	0	–	–
–	4	SAVOUREUX	Kris Lees	Joshua Parr	–	0	–	–