Keayang Zahara after winning the 2026 Maori Mile
IT is almost 50 years since the great Maori’s Idol revolutionised Australian trotting in such a way he is still regarded as the best of all-time.
Now, the man who drove and co-trained him, Bryan Healy, says current sensation Keayang Zahara (Volstead-Keayang Yankee by Muscles Yankee) has the same sort of potential.
Keayang Zahara posted her 23rd win from just 24 starts, including 12 at Group 1 level, when she cruised to victory in last Saturday night’s $A75,000 Group 1 Cranbourne Trotters’ Cup.
It also took her past $A1 million in prize money faster than any Down Under trotter before her.
“She could be a modern-day Maori’s Idol with the things she is doing,” he said. “We haven’t seen one like her since him (Maori’s Idol) for sheer dominance.
“Just as Maori’s Idol changed trotting, Keayang Zahara is starting to do the same in her own way.
“I still follow the game closely and I love watching her race. The speed and ease she does things is incredible.”
Keayang Zahara’s next target is Australia’s biggest trotting race, the $A250,000 Group 1 Great Southern Star, at Melton on February 14.
Having won three key lead-up races, the five-year-old can bank a new $A500,000 bonus for connection on top of the race prize money if she wins again.
Sush has been her dominance, Keayang Zahara is currently $1.25 (for a $1 bet) to win the Great Southern Star.
It may require her to win twice more. Like the Little Brown Jug and Elitlopp, the Great Southern Star consists of two heats into a final on the same night.
Healy the fact Keayang Zahara is related to Maori’s Idol added to the joy the mare is bringing him
Keayang Zahara’s dam, Keayang Yankee, is a great, great granddaughter of Maori Mia, who is a sister to Maori’s Idol.
“That’s a great tie-in, isn’t it,” Healy said. “Maori’s Idol Maori Mia are out of Maori Miss. People rave about the impact Maori’s Idol had and he did on the track, but what Maori Miss has done for trotting in Australia is simply incredible. She’s the marvel.
“Keayang Zahara’s stablemate, Jilliby Ballerini, who may well be the second-best trotter in Australia, is also from the Maori Miss family.”
Maori’s Idol (Ike Frost-Maori Miss by Grand Monarch) finished his career with 46 starts for 40 wins, three seconds and a third.
While Keayang Zahara won her 15 starts, Maori’s Idol set a then record with 24 successive wins at the height of his career.
Healy is convinced Keayang Zahara is world class.
“Absolutely. Everything tells us that,” he said. “If she was mine, I’d be getting over to the race in the US or Europe soon. She’s something else.”
The Lee clan who bred, own and train Keayang Zahara has touted next year’s iconic Elitlopp trot in Sweden as the first possible target against the world’s best.
Back in his prime, Maori’s Idol won two Australian Trotter of the Year crowns, was the 1977/78 Australian Horse of the Year (pacer or trotter) and is a Hall of Fame inductee.
Most remarkably, Maori’s Idol raced against and beat many of the best pacers of his time, which is unthinkable in today’s world.
Keayang Zahara will never race the pacers, albeit she is running times most pacers couldn’t get near.
“That’s the thing many people marvel about when they look back at Maori’s Idol, how he raced those top pacers, especially during the that Sir Clive Uhr series in Brisbane (in 1978) and beat them, including a great horse like Paleface Adios,” Healy recalled.
Maori’s Idol won his two of the series before a brave second to the great pacer Rip Van Winkle in the final.
“They were different times then, but there are so many options now for the trotters and good prize money around, a trotter like Keayang Zahara has no need to race the pacers,” Healy said.
“The trotting breed has come so far with all the European and American bloodlines over here now.
“Look at Keayang Zahara. She’s got the mix of the Maori Miss/Maori’s Idol family with some amazing international flavour.”
Keayang Zahara is by US-based siring sensation Volstead out of Keayang Yankee, is by another top US stallion Muscles Yankee out of the Maori Miss family.
“This mare is a generational great. She can and already is re-writing the record books. Everyone should get out and see her before she gets too big for Australia and takes on the world,” Healy said.
The great Lyell Creek (Roydon Glen-Kahlum by Noodlum) is the other in the discussion for the best Down Under trotter since Maori’s Idol.
He conquered Australia, contested an Elitlopp heat without luck and had success in the US before returning to win again at Group 1 level in New Zealand.
“Creek the Freak” as they called him was indeed that, a freak.
He was trained by Tim Butt and driven by his brother, Anthony, who is one of Down Under’s all-time great drivers.
Anthony is about to return to NZ after a long stint in Australia and is glad he has stayed long enough to see Keayang Zahara emerge.
Like Healy, despite his obvious love for and connection with his own champion, Butt agreed Keayang Zahara deserved to be in the discussion.
“She is a freak,” he said. “She’s the best I’ve seen in a long, long time.
“The ease she does things, the way she dominates and the fact she still looks to be developing.
“It’s also great she’s in such good hands. They (the Lee clan) have taken their time and I’m sure they’ll continue to do so. They’ve handled her superbly.
“She’s going to be very exciting to watch over the next couple of years wherever they decide to go or whatever they decide to do with her.”
Keayang Zahara is already the richest Australian-bred trotter and rapidly closing in on Kiwi-bred Queen Elida ($A1,103,470) as the richest Down Under.
Given the $A500,000 bonus money (if she wins it) won’t count towards prize money, she has a long way to catch Lyell Creek’s Australasian trotting prize money record of $A2,256,724.
PHOTO:
Keayang Zahara - Stuart McCormick
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