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Rachel King has combined with Tulloch Lodge and Zoumon to capture back-to-back wins in the Grafton Cup.
Exciting young stayer Zoumon has underlined his reputation as the winter Cups King, adding the $200,000 Grafton Cup to his triumphs in the McKell and Caloundra Cups, and earning spring carnival consideration in the process.
Co-trainer Adrian Bott made the trek from Randwick to be trackside at Grafton and was relieved his pre-race concerns that the horse may have peaked proved unfounded as Rachel King led the horse's rivals a merry dance.
"Good to see him continue to improve. I wasn't sure how much further improvement there was off the back of his last start win," Bott told Sky Racing.
"But things worked out well. Rachel was able to rate him nicely, he was able to kick really well off the turn and had them under pressure pretty quickly and (he was) very strong through the line."
Bucking the trend of overseas imports winning feature staying races, Zoumon was locally bred being a son of top stallion Zoustar out of a Monsun mare.
He showed enough promise to contest the ATC Australian Derby at three, but with time and maturity he has raised the bar, his success in Thursday's Listed Grafton Cup (2350m) delivering his third win from four campaign runs.
Bott says he and training partner Gai Waterhouse are yet to lock in concrete plans for Zoumon, but feel he won't be out of place in the spring staying features.
"He's been great this preparation, he's just gone from strength to strength," Bott said.
"I'm not entirely sure what we do next but it's just great to have a nice, consistent horse like him in good form.
"He knows how to win. He's got a great racing pattern, he's tough and importantly, he has improved every time he's stepped out.
"If there's further improvement there, he might be able to feature in some of those spring carnival staying races."
Starting a $2.50 favourite, Zoumon gave King consecutive Grafton Cups after her success aboard Arapaho last year, the pair dictating throughout to score by 2-1/4 lengths over the fast-finishing Outlandos ($9.50) with Spirit Ridge ($8.50) third.
Given her affinity with the race, King is hoping to return next July to chase a hat-trick.
"That would be nice, we'll be back next year," King said.
