Follow Files: Thousand Guineas winner ready for Golden Eagle
Last Saturday, Caulfield took centre stage with its marquee meeting, where the Group 1 Caulfield Cup was the highlight event on the program. In this week’s edition of the Follow Files, we look at three runners from that meeting who appear very close to a win at their next start.
Caulfield
Rail position: +3m entire circuit
Race 6: Group 2 Caulfield Sprint (1000m) | Time: 0:57.48
- Horse to follow: Spacewalk (2nd)
If you backed Spacewalk from the Godolphin yard, you would have been counting your money at the 200m mark when he let down with a burst of acceleration to level up with Doull. However, when the son of Exosphere appeared to take the lead, he also began to slow and almost take the foot off the pedal. Jamie Kah kept asking for an effort from the four-year-old gelding, but he couldn’t pick up again and was headed by Doull in the final strides. Although he lost, Spacewalk recorded the fastest 800m, 600m, 400m and 200m sectional splits of the entire meeting.
When to bet: Spacewalk finished a close second behind Buenos Noches in the Poseidon Stakes down the Flemington straight last spring, so we expect the Godolphin team to target the Group 3 Rising Fast Stakes on Derby Day for his third-up run. With the extra 200m and the fitness earned from his two starts back, Spacewalk should be extremely hard to beat.
Race 7: Group 2 Tristarc Stakes (1400m) | Time: 1:23.53
- Horse to follow: Madame Pommery (4th)
The Chris Waller-trained Madame Pommery could have been one of the unluckiest runners that featured on the Caulfield program last Saturday. The four-year-old had to settle on the rail from barrier one, and James McDonald chose to stay on the rail when turning the home bend, but he soon found out there was no run for his mare. This daughter of No Nay Never was bumped, squashed and nearly fell behind race favourite Skew Wiff before balancing up and flooding home to finish fourth, beaten 0.7 of a length by Wrote To Arataki.
When to bet: After winning the Thousand Guineas over 1600m at Caulfield last spring, Madame Pommery has shown that she can run a strong mile. If she can draw a good barrier, this mare is set to run a huge race in the $10 million Golden Eagle over 1500m at Randwick at her fifth start of the campaign.
Race 9: Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) | Time: 2:26.45
- Horse to follow: Breakup (8th)
It isn’t all that often that an overseas runner in the Group 1 Caulfield Cup will push onto another major race during the Victorian Spring Carnival, but that is exactly what we expect Breakup from the Tatsuya Yoshioka stable will do by taking on the Melbourne Cup in just over two weeks’ time. After settling and travelling well before the home turn, the son of Novellist made his run but was quickly knocked around by horses on either side of him. Damian Lane tried to stay away from the hustle and bustle of the contending pack but couldn’t get his mount back into clear air until the 100m mark, when the leading duo had already taken off to fight out the finish.
When to bet: Throughout his 22-start career, Breakup has won over 2400m and 2500m and has been placed at Group level over 3000m and 3200m. His fourth-place finish in the Group 1 Tenno Sho in Japan indicates he will be able to run out a strong two miles in the Melbourne Cup at his next start.