Australian youngster Just Zerene represents a form stable in the Group I Sistema Stakes at Ellerslie.

 

The Zoustar filly will be the first New Zealand runner for trainer Tony McEvoy, who has already produced three individual Group I winners – Sunlight, Oohood and Manuel – this season.

 

McEvoy, who has had 10 wins from his last 50 runners, is among the top 10 trainers in Australia this season in terms of total wins, metropolitan wins and stake earnings.

 

The stable has won 95 races this season, including 54 metropolitan races, with a winning strike rate of 15.2 percent at metropolitan meetings. McEvoy leads the Adelaide trainers’ premiership and is in fourth place on  the Melbourne premiership.

 

He has a good record with juveniles and produced two of the first three placegetters in the 2018 Golden Slipper.

 

Just Zerene, who was a A$800,000 yearling buy for the China Horse Club, is still a maiden after three starts but has been well supported each start and luck in the running has not gone her way.

 

She started at $2.60 when making her debut in a Group III race in Brisbane but finished sixth after being slow away. She then started at $1.90 in a maiden two-year-old in Sydney but ran into Golden Slipper hope Castelvecchio and finished second, beaten a neck.

 

She ran fifth in maiden company at her third attempt, also in Sydney, but had a tough run from a wide draw and was only a length from the winner.

 

She has the inside draw this weekend and will be aided by a barrier blanket.