Charles Road on the right path to major assignments

Charles Road shows his class with a stirring win at Hastings – pic ex Trish Dunell

Recently crowned New Zealand Champion Stayer for 2017-18, Charles Road, showed he was ready for some big spring assignments when he downed a talented field over 1600m at Hastings on Saturday.

The Group 1 Sydney Cup (3200m) placegetter made an emphatic statement as he charged home carrying top-weight of 60.5kgs to down the free-going lightweight Big Mike at a distance well short of his best.

The performance confirmed he is building nicely as his connections look to options that include the Group 1 Livamol Classic (2040m) in October and possibly the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) on the first Tuesday in November.

Rider Sam Weatherley was emphatic in his assessment that the Myboycharlie five-year-old was ready to step up over the next few months.

“He’s a very good horse,” he said.

“For him to do what he has over a mile today means there are exciting times ahead once he gets up to two miles.

“That’s his real go as he is a genuine stayer.”

Co-trainer Andrew Scott was pleased with the effort off the back of a tidy first-up performance in the Group 2 Foxbridge Plate (1200m) at Te Rapa last month.

“It was encouraging today to see he is coming up in the right manner,” he said. “It was a really good effort with all the weight as the leader had very little.

“The main thing is that he is coming up in a manner that gives you confidence that he can go somewhere.”

Scott was unsure of just what the next opportunity would be for Charles Road as he, co-trainer Lance O’Sullivan and owner David Archer mull over their options.

“We’ll just have to get home and have a chat to Lance and David,” he said.

“We can then form a plan. We’ve got to this point and now we’ll have a bit of a board meeting to work out where we go.

“Everything is pretty open at the moment as we will see how he pulls up then work a path forward. It’s exciting and we just have to hope he can keep going in an upward spiral.”

The victory was the sixth in a 21-start career to date for Charles Road who was a $90,000 purchase for Archer from the Wentwood Grange draft at the Premier session of the 2015 National Yearling Sale.

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