Saffie Osborne excels as Zigazig Ah bags Super Sprint

It was all about the girls in this year’s Weatherbys Super Sprint as Saffie Osborne and Richard Spencer’s speedy filly Zigazig Ah emerged victorious in a thrilling four-way finish to the lucrative Newbury feature.

The lightly-weighted Yarmouth winner was amongst 24 wannabes for the prestigious juvenile prize and ended up picking up the first prize of £143,000 after 24-year-old Osborne delivered her mount to precision to claim a victory that was met with great celebrations from connections back in the winner’s enclosure.

Osborne said: “I was very unsure two or three strides down and then when I hit the line I was like, ‘oh, I might have won that’!

“I enjoyed that one way more than I thought I would. I think when the photo is that close and you don’t know you are preparing for the worst, but I’m delighted it went our way.

“It makes it more special as she’s a homebred of Phil Cunningham’s (owner) by Rajasinghe and is really special to them. I’d like to think I’m part of their team now and good friends with them, so it means more when you are winning for people you love riding for.”

Although the 17-2 chance did not have experience of many of her rivals, she proved a consummate professional, showing her toughness when it mattered most to edge a nose verdict over Henry Candy’s Angels Lane and Laura Pearson, with Karl Burke’s Final Appeal a further short head back in third.

Osborne added: “It felt like she was in a five-runner race rather than a 24-runner race and considering she was one of the first in the stalls, she was so professional for a filly who has only run twice.

“The form of her two runs isn’t brilliant, but we always thought she was better than those two runs and she didn’t have much weight on her back, so it couldn’t have gone more smoothly really.”

Spencer, who also saddled the 7-2 favourite Etienne to finish fourth, was delighted to see the talented winner get her head in front, albeit after a nervous wait as the judge deliberated over the verdict.

Spencer said: “I hate celebrating and when you watch them cross the line like that, I just try to stay neutral as there’s so many times you think you’ve won and you’ve actually got beat.

“She was down with a couple of strides to go and it was very close on the jam stick, but Saffie has given her a great ride and she saw out the trip well, which has helped at the end there.

“She’s a tough, consistent filly that hopefully we can have a lot of fun with. She’s in as many of the sales races as we could put her in and she gets a low weight. Whether we go to Goodwood I don’t know, but she will go for some sales races and black type along the way.

“Saffie is part of a great team of jockeys we’ve got now and they all get on. We have no preference and no hierarchy but when they work hard they get their rewards.”