Godolphin set to make Brisbane winter splash at Doomben
THE powerhouse stables of Godolphin haven’t had the best of luck this winter, but that’s all set to change this Saturday as it lines up three potential top liners.
John O’Shea and Godolphin have entered Ghisoni, Souchez and Mogador for Saturday’s Doomben card and all three are the current favourites with Sportsbet.com.au.
Souchez is a colt by Lonhro and it looks one of the better bets of the day at $2.50 with Sportsbet. It is also the current favourite for the Group 1 J.J. Atkins in two weeks time and although it was qualified for the Golden Slipper, O’Shea decided Queensland was a better fit.
“John decided to keep him in Queensland,” Godolphin’s Australian manager Henry Plumptre said. “He’s still very raw and you can see that when you look at him in the yard.
“His mum placed in the Tasmanian Oaks. I’m not sure where the stamina came from, because it’s a speed family. He’s a grandson of Regimental Gal, who won a Lightning Stakes at Flemington.”
Mogador has been a punter’s worst nightmare this campaign with three win-less runs. The three-year-old colt has won two from nine and has carried support since its first start where it ran as the $1.40 favourite against subsequent champion three-year-old Exosphere.
“He probably hasn’t come up to the expectations we had,” Plumptre said. “At one stage last spring, John put no more than a length between him and Exosphere. He had always shown us to be well above average on the training track, but for one reason or another hasn’t lived up to those expectations.
“Hopefully he can get back in the winning groove here, because it’s a lovely race for him and he’s well suited by the weights.”
Mogador is currently the easing $3.50 favourite at Sportsbet for the Queensland Day Stakes at Doomben.
The third of Godolphin’s high-profile runners is three-year-old filly Ghisoni ($1.85 at Crownbet) which could have run in the Doomben 10,000, but O’Shea opted for an easier target this time around.
“John and I are very bullish on her prospects for next year, so we don’t want to cut her in half this season,” Plumptre said.
“She had a slight setback in Sydney and that’s why we reverted to the Arrowfield. After that we had the option of giving her a spell and bringing her back for the early part of the spring or push on to Brisbane and then get her ready for the back end of the spring.
“We think she can be a Myer horse in the spring and because she had done so well [at home] we decided to push on.
“Brisbane has a lovely sequence of races for fillies and mares through to the Group 1 [Tatt’s] Tiara, using the Glenlogan and then Dane Ripper.
“Now obviously we will keep our eye on the Stradbroke but she needs to make the field first. If that happens, then we will sit down and discuss it with the boss [Sheikh Mohammed] and decide if we run or not.”