WITH more than 1000 thoroughbreds on his books, you'd think that retail magnate Gerry Harvey's enthusiasm for anything less than a valuable group race win would have been dulled over the years. But not so, reports The Age.It adds: ''You'll be able to hear me moaning and groaning way down in Melbourne if he doesn't run well on Saturday,'' Harvey said yesterday from the Gold Coast. ''I've had high hopes for that horse since day one and so far it's been one calamity after another.''The horse he was

WITH more than 1000 thoroughbreds on his books, you'd think that retail magnate Gerry Harvey's enthusiasm for anything less than a valuable group race win would have been dulled over the years. But not so, reports The Age.

It adds: ''You'll be able to hear me moaning and groaning way down in Melbourne if he doesn't run well on Saturday,'' Harvey said yesterday from the Gold Coast. ''I've had high hopes for that horse since day one and so far it's been one calamity after another.''

The horse he was talking about was the massive galloper Zagreb, who tomorrow lines up in the listed Chester Manifold Stakes at Flemington after suffering a bleeding attack last spring.

Harvey, who, among various business ventures, owns retail store Harvey Norman, bred Zagreb from stakes winner Dansino - one of his estimated 300 broodmares across Australasia - and from the day he was born, the owner-breeder-seller has long believed that Zagreb could be the one.

''I've got such high hopes about him not only as a racehorse but as a stallion as well,'' Harvey said. ''He's by Zabeel and he could be the next Zabeel at stud and that's why I am so desperate for him to win a group 1 race,'' he said. ''Hopefully this time [campaign] he can.''

Zagreb has threatened to win a group 1 race each season since he started racing as a three-year-old. He ran second behind Zarita in the group 1 South Australian Derby in 2008 and later that spring was one of the early favourites for the Caulfield Cup before a hoof abscess forced him on the sidelines.

He returned to racing early last year and then went within a neck of winning the Australian Cup (finished third) before a series of wet tracks resulted in him losing his form. Zagreb then was spelled and came back for the Caulfield Cup until a bleeding attack in the Turnbull Stakes last October again forced him to the sidelines on a mandatory three-month ban from racing. The horse, who is on an Australian Cup preparation, drew barrier 12 for the 1410-metre Chester Manifold.