He returned to work as a four-year-old and had six straight wins, including the Hong Kong Jockey Club Stakes on Melbourne Cup Day in 2005.
He ran a game fourth in the 2006 Melbourne Cup – a race he would contest on four occasions, finishing fourth again in 2007 before an unlucky ninth in 2008 and a fourth in 2009. “People forget his Melbourne Cup record,” Williams said.
Zipping also ran in the Cox Plate four times, finishing second in 2008 and 2010 and third in 2009. He also won four Sandown Classics between 2007 and 2010, the traditional last race of the spring carnival, which was renamed the Zipping Classic in his honour. It was a truly remarkable feat for an aging galloper.
His fifth, and most successful attempt to win the Turnbull Stakes in 2010 was one to remember, as he was a nine-year-old veteran by then. Williams quipped at the time: “You wouldn’t know he was nine. You would reckon he was four.”
After his retirement in 2011, Williams rehomed Zipping at Living Legends, where he was joined in a paddock with his former stablemate and fellow Turnbull Stakes winner (2009), Efficient (affectionately known as ‘Fish’). Efficient is of course the gallant grey who won the 2006 Victoria Derby and the 2007 Melbourne Cup (the last horse to achieve this feat was Phar Lap with a VRC Derby win in 1929 and Melbourne Cup in 1930).