Pride looks to Zouripper to make his mark early for growing stable

Joe Pride wiped his whiteboards on Thursday ready to set new targets for his bolstered stable after a successful season.

And the Warwick Farm trainer believes honest performer Zouripper can handle the quick back-up and mark his new campaign with victory on the opening day at Rosehill.

Elle Hudson gave Pride a final metropolitan winner for the 2025-26 season on Wednesday at the Kensington track, taking him to 40 city wins in NSW and 45 nationwide. Pride has also captured four group 1 victories via Ceolwulf (King Charles III, Champions Mile), Attica (Spring Champion) and Headley Grange (Kingsford-Smith) among 15 stakes-level wins.

Pride was aiming high for this season and said he will have more runners, given he gained 20 boxes in late April to bring his stable capacity up to 80.

“I’ve got two whiteboards, one that has metro winners, and then I have group and listed winners and I have a target for each one, and I never meet the targets that I’ve set,” Pride said.

“The target was 60 metro wins and we got 45, which is a good season, then the other I had 18 there and I ended up with 16 on my board, but everyone tells me it’s 15. But the [$1.5 million] Alan Brown [Stakes] is a black-type race, even though it wasn’t last year. I counted it.

“Eighteen stakes winners, if I can get that any year, that’s pretty high, so [next season] I’ll probably ... I’ll go to 20. Why not. And I’ll go 60 metro wins and we’ll see how we go.”

Zouripper gives Pride a strong chance to score a first metro win of the season when he contests the last, an 1100, benchmark 78 handicap.

The five-year-old won in the same grade two starts ago over 1000m on a heavy Randwick track before coming from second last to finish a length and a half off winner Hawker Hall when third in an 1100 benchmark 88 last Saturday at the track.

Top jockey James McDonald takes over aboard Zouripper, which was a $5 second elect behind Bjorn Baker-trained Jarrito ($2.40).

Pride had no concerns about the seven-day back-up for Zouripper, which was second at Rosehill 10 days after a first-up run at Canterbury this preparation.

“I don’t think that will be a problem,” Pride said.

“I think I can do it. He’s going well. He’s just racing really honestly with a lot of determination.

“He’s pinning his ears back and having a crack at the line every time. It was a good race last time so he needs to back that up.

“The carnival will start soon enough. Late August here is when it really starts to heat up, all the new season three-year-olds come back, so we’ve got to make the most of these for the winter class horses.”

Pride also has Aberlour ($21) resuming and Gatsby’s ($16) trying to bounce back in the ninth, a 1300m benchmark 94.

He hoped to get Aberlour back to stakes grade after she had two unplaced attempts last spring and said she would run Saturday despite drawing the outside.

“She’s a really nice mare, I’ve got a lot of time for her, but she’s going to take a bit of racing to get back there,” he said.

Gatsby’s was nine lengths off the pace last start on heavy ground.

“He was probably unlucky that day because he tracked wide, but he also didn’t like that heavy track,” he said.

“I wouldn’t run him again on a heavy. He’s back on reasonable ground, with his blinkers back on.”