Big day in prospect at Randwick for Juddmonte’s Kingman
Leading European sire represented by talented filly Zardozi in Silver Shadow and King Colorado in Winx Stakes
The sons of Invincible Spirit (Green Desert) have strong chances to cover themselves in more glory as the season hots up with its first Group 1 day today, with not only the usual suspect I Am Invincible holding several trump cards but with leading British sire Kingman also in the mix to land Randwick’s two features.
Exciting Maher-Eustace three-year-old colt King Colorado will strive to claim Kingman his second Australian Group 1 when – while still technically a two-year-old – he takes on older horses in the weight-for-age Winx Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m) at only his fourth start, having taken Brisbane’s top-tier juvenile event, the JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m) last June.
And Godolphin will take the cover off their promising Kingman filly Zardozi – the daughter of an unraced Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) mare who cost around $2.7 million as a yearling – in the Silver Shadow Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) for three-year-old fillies.
Zardozi was unbeaten in her first three starts last autumn, culminating in the lucrative two-year-old Clarendon Stakes (1400m) on Hawkesbury Cup Day, and she is rated highly by Godolphin as she embarks on her spring campaign.
But she appears likely to have to settle for being third-favourite today behind Ciaron Maher and David Eustace’s daughter of I Am Invincible, Estriella, and the Annabel Neasham-trained Kristilli – who’s also from the same sireline, being by I Am Invincible’s son and Yarraman Park stud mate Hellbent.
King Colorado, who’s primarily on a Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) path, could become one of the stories of the spring.
Bred and part-owned by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, he’s from a superb American family, with his fourth dam Fall Aspen (Pretense) throwing nine stakes-winners – four at elite-level – and counting numerous star descendants, including Nature Strip (Nicconi).
King Colorado trod a path to Group 1 success in the winter that perhaps sums up the Maher-Eustace method of rewriting the playbook, as previously seen so stunningly in Hitotsu (Maurice) going from a Donald maiden win to a Caulfield Guineas fifth before taking the VRC Derby (Gr 1, 2500m).
Held back for his debut until late April, King Colorado won a Kembla Grange maiden at start two, then was pitched into Group 1 grade, as a $14 chance, and took the JJ Atkins by almost a length with a powerful inside run.
He doesn’t technically turn three until September 14, which omen hunters might know means he shares a birthday with Winx (Street Cry).
Initially a first emergency, but promoted into the field after Thursday’s scratching of Arapaho (Lope De Vega), King Colorado has been sent into today’s elite-level event first-up at career start number four against seasoned weight-for-age stars including Zaaki (Leroidesanimaux, $4.20 favourite), Fangirl (Sebring, $5.50) and Mo’unga (Savabeel, $13).
It’s an unorthodox early spring assault against older horses. In the past 20 editions of Sydney’s earliest weight-for-age race of the season, only one three-year-old has started. Significantly, it was the 2009 winner Trusting (Tale Of The Cat), the Jason Coyle-trained colt who capitalised on the same light weight – 50.5 kilograms – to be carried by King Colorado today.
Jockey Louise Day, who rode the colt in his first two starts and has a listed standard riding weight of 51 kilograms, resumes the reins today from his JJ Atkins rider Jason Collett, who normally rides at 53 kilograms.
Irish expat Day has a chance for her first top-flight win after four previous unplaced rides at the top-level thanks to King Colorado’s light impost, which co-trainer Ciaron Maher believes provides a strong chance for his burgeoning colt, who was a $10 shot last night after a Rosehill barrier trial win last Friday.
“It is a big step up against the older horses, but it was either start next week carrying weight against his own age [in the Up And Coming Stakes], or he gets the weight drop against more experienced horses, which is the trade-off,” Maher told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“I’m rapt with him. He’s come up nicely for the spring. He carries a bit of residual fitness from his winter prep, and his trial win was good.
“He was fairly raw and green last prep, but he seems a bit more professional now. He’ll improve a bit from the run, like they all do, but having had that winter prep and just needing a little freshen up – he looks fantastic,” said Maher, who also rates highly his stable’s other Kingman runner at Randwick today – Venelope – an $9 shot in the fourth event.
King Colorado will jump from gate three at Randwick, which was yesterday rated a Heavy 8, but with sunny skies forecast for today.
The Winx’s high quality field also features the long-awaited return from injury of Think It Over (So You Think, $10). Eight of the 16 starters hail from the Chris Waller stable, including resumptions for the trainer’s new acquisition Montefilia (Kermadec, $18), Hinged (Worthy Cause, $15), and Rosehill Guineas (Gr 1, 2000m) winner Lindermann (Lonhro, $14), who caught the eye with a slashing barrier trial win on August 1.
Godolphin will be hoping Caulfield Guineas winner Golden Mile (Astern, $13) can improve on recent results, with the four-year-old entire enduring an ostensibly unflattering last-three sequence of 11th of 11, 20th of 20, and ninth of 10. However, the middle leg was on a Heavy 9 in the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m), while he was most recently seen when nearly falling in the straight first-up after Big Parade (Deep Field) sustained a fatal injury in Rosehill’s Missile Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) two weeks’ ago.
“James McDonald said he was shaping up to be hugely competitive in that race, before he got checked out of it,” said Godolphin Australia’s managing director Vin Cox.
“He’s a Group 1 winner. He’s a very good horse. We’ve always had a very high opinion of him. It is a Group 1, so the strength of the field has ratcheted up another level, but we’re very happy with the way the horse is going.”
Golden Mile has gate two for Chad Schofield, with McDonald switching to Waller’s Fangirl from barrier 11.
One race later in the Silver Shadow, Zardozi could also boost an impressive record for Kingman that reads 68 stakes-winners worldwide from 572 runners, at 12 per cent. In Australia, he’s had three black-type victors from just 21 runners at 14 per cent.
Godolphin went hard to buy Zardozi’s dam at Book 1 of 2017 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in Newmarket, with their winning bid of 1,300,000gns (approx AU$2,715,100) putting her amongst the top 12 lots – and Dubawi’s fifth-highest – at that year’s auction. Named Chanderi, her dam Silk Sari (Dalakhani) was a dual stakes-winner, and her third dam a dual Group 1 winner in Gossamer (Sadler’s Wells).
However, after Chanderi didn’t make it to the track, Godolphin sent her for a first mating with Juddmonte’s Kingman, on southern hemisphere time, in his fifth season at stud. The result was Zardozi, the slightly-built but smooth-moving filly, who opened her account last autumn with a win at Gosford and two at Hawkesbury.
“She’s a filly who well before she even raced the team identified as having above average ability, and she’s proven that so far,” Cox said of Zardozi, who has barrier 12 for Schofield.
“She’s not a big robust filly, but that’s the breed, and she’s certainly got the right attitude. This race will be a good test for her, but we do see her as a stakes filly at some stage.”
The Silver Shadow market was last night headed by Estriella ($3.90), who Maher labelled his stable’s strongest prospect of the day.
The Arrowfield Stud and GSA Bloodstock-bred $750,000 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale buy for Maher also made a winning debut at Gosford, in June. She was then caught on the post by the highly-rated Caballus (I Am Invincible) over 1100 metres at Randwick on July 29.
“It was a good run that day, she did it at both ends, and the other horse just made one run at her. She fought back and got back in front but then probably missed that little bit of condition on the line,” Maher said. “The extra hundred metres here won’t worry her. She’ll be better for the run with a bit more fitness.”
Estriella will spring from barrier five as one of Jamie Kah’s main hopes, along with Zaaki, in her first day of riding since her fall at Flemington in March.
McDonald will have to overcome barrier nine on Kristilli, who resumes after claiming the Percy Sykes Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) at Randwick in April, beating last week’s impressive The Rosebud (Listed, 1100m) winner Tiz Invincible (I Am Invincible) into second.
Waterhouse-Bott’s Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar) is third-favourite at $5.50, ahead of Gary Portelli’s Kimochi (Brave Smash), who beat Kristilli into second on her debut at Randwick-Kensington in March, before running third behind her in the Percy Sykes.