Godolphin’s Broadsiding produces Golden performance at Rosehill
Caulfield Guineas next for Too Darn Hot’s champion two-year-old while Traffic Warden enters Everest picture
Reigning champion juvenile Broadsiding (Too Darn Hot) picked up where he left off last season when he produced a barnstorming display to win Saturday’s Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) on his seasonal debut, leading home a brilliant quinella for Godolphin homebreds in the Rosehill Group 1 in the process.
The James Cummings-trained son of Too Darn Hot (Dubawi) took all before him as a two-year-old, opening his account in the Fernhill Mile (Listed, 1600m) in April, before breaking his elite-level duck on his next start in the ATC Champagne Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m).
A trip to the Queensland winter carnival saw him triumph in June’s BRC Sires’ Produce Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) and he signed off his brilliant juvenile campaign with a success in the JJ Atkins (Gr 1, 1600m) a fortnight later.
With connections deciding against a competitive pipe-opener, Broadsiding instead warmed up for his reappearance in the Golden Rose with barrier trials at Rosehill and Hawkesbury, finishing second in both.
After breaking smartly from barrier one, James McDonald was happy to settle the colt in midfield on the fence with Storm Boy (Justify) setting smart fractions on the front end. As the field entered the straight, Broadsiding unleashed his trademark turn off foot, zipping up the centre of the track to cross the line 0.14 lengths ahead of his stablemate, last-start Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m) winner Traffic Warden (Street Boss).
The Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Mayfair (Fastnet Rock), runner-up in the San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m) and Ming Dynasty (Gr 3, 1400m) on his two previous appearances, ran another brilliant race, this time having to settle for third, another 0.19 lengths away. Meanwhile, the wait for that elusive Group 1 goes on Mayfair’s stablemate Storm Boy, with the colt coming home another 0.35 lengths adrift in fourth.
The victory handed Cummings his 50th at the elite-level and came ten years after his first, which incidentally was achieved in the same race when he saddled Hallowed Crown (Street Sense), who he trained in partnership with his grandfather, Bart, to win the Group 1 in 2014.
Overall, Broadsiding becomes the trainer’s third winner of the event, with Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) landing the contest in 2019, while Anamoe (Street Boss) was narrowly edged into second by In The Congo (Snitzel) in the 2021 edition.
Cummings paid tribute to his staff for their efforts in getting the two colts to their first target in top order, before confirming Broadsiding would now head to the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) in Melbourne on October 12, while the colt’s price for the Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2400m) at The Valley on October 27 was tightened to $6, the third choice behind Japanese raider Prognosis (Deep Impact) and Friday’s Feehan Stakes (Gr 2, 1600m) winner Pride Of Jenni (Pride Of Dubai).
Traffic Warden firmed as Godolphin’s top seed to fill their slot in The Everest (1200m) at Randwick on October 19.
“It takes a village to run a racing stable and it doesn’t matter if it’s Leilani Lodge from ten years ago or Godolphin now,” the trainer said.
“I’ve got three great stables that are able to get their fingerprints all over horses like these. I owe it to them.
“They are the backbone, they are the guts of what we are trying to achieve and two big colts today in a proper race, letting down to fight it out in a race like the Golden Rose is a huge moment.”
In the run up to the race, much was made of Broadsiding’s bid to make history and become the first horse to win the Group 1 on his seasonal bow since its inception in 2003, but Cummings shrugged off the task, believing it more than achievable for his talented three-year-old.
“That was so overblown. This race has been around five minutes,” he said. “It hasn’t been done before, well it’s been done now. I had no trouble getting Anamoe ready for a Winx Stakes over seven furlongs first-up. Plenty of good horses can do that.
“The thing is, he’s by Too Darn Hot, he’s a European-bred horse with a European style, and chasing over six furlongs would not have been his go. He was in the right race fresh up and that’s just our stable having the confidence to know our horses.
“As for the other horse [Traffic Warden], evidently he took great benefit from the first-up run. He’s gone enormous this afternoon and he continues to prove that he’s in for a blistering preparation.
“But take nothing away from Broadsiding. He’s a champion from last season, he steps right onto the turf as a three-year-old and claims a Group 1. It’s a pretty impressive achievement for a colt to do. I can’t remember too many colts, champion two-year-old colts, doing that in the past.”
Cummings said there had been a change of direction for Godolphin, with the focus more on quality over quantity.
“We’ve got diminishing foal crops, we don’t have massive numbers. You know how many runners we had in races today? These two,” the trainer said.
“Two runners in this one race. We’re focusing on quality in a way that helps hone our attention but also in another way that helps build the pressure. So these horses have got to perform. But their performance was outstanding. To get over the top of class animals in the way our two colts did was a huge effort.”
Saturday’s victory moved McDonald within one of a century of Group 1 winners and the rider was quick to heap praise on Broadsiding.
“He’s got way more [ability] than we can ever imagine, he’s just a cool dude,” he said
“From the moment I sat on him in the Fernhill, seeing his development from race to race to race is incredible. He hasn’t gone up step by step, he’s skipped a couple.
“He’s that kind of horse. He was feeling the pinch 100 [metres] from home and just the fighting qualities in this horse, the turn of foot, the will to win, he’s just a marvellous horse.”
Broadsiding (3 c Too Darn Hot – Speedway by Street Cry) is the only runner from two live foals out of the Street Cry (Machiavellian) mare Speedway, who made 11 starts for three Godolphin trainers, John O’Shea, Darren Beadman and James Cummings, for two wins and a further four placings.
Speedway, who died in 2022, is a half-sister to Flit (Medaglia D’Oro), winner of the Thousand Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m), Light Fingers Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m), and VRC Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) during a 21-start career for Cummings.