Godolphin take top honours in Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap

Impending
Impending, pictured earlier in his career, was too good in the Stradbroke Handicap. PIC Bradley Photography.

THREE-YEAR-OLD Impending has upstaged some of his older rivals to score in the Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1350m) at Doomben.

Trained by Darren Beadman, the Godolphin colt went back in the early stages but began working into the race throughout the middle stages, stuck wide throughout the entirety of the event.

The Lonrho youngster was asked to quicken approaching the 300m mark and didn’t disappoint, storming down the centre of the track to defeat In Her Time and Clearly Innocent.

Godolphin Australia general manager Henry Plumptre seemed unsurprised by the win, maintaining that Impending had always shown the ability to secure a group 1 victory.

“If you look at his runs in the Spring, there wasn’t a better three-year-old – he just drew wide in the Caulfield Guineas where he rattled home for fourth,” Plumptre said.

“He became a bit of a forgotten horse in the Autumn with a lot of wet tracks which he doesn’t really enjoy.

“They kept faith in him and brought him up here – that run two weeks ago was a good run because he didn’t enjoy the ground that much.

“Getting back on that sort of surface today with a drop in weight and a beautiful ride from Corey [Brown] – hats off to the trainer because he has planned this whole thing for the past couple of months, he has done a great job.”

It was a milestone victory for the horse’s trainer Darren Beadman, a champion jockey who took over the training duties for Godolphin’s Australian team last month when former trainer John O’Shea stepped aside.

James Cummings, the grandson of legendary trainer Bart Cummings, will take over the position as head trainer, with Beadman set to stay on as assistant trainer.

WilliamHill.com.au

Plumptre said he has high hopes for the new Cummings-Beadman partnership and commended Beadman for his services as interim trainer.

“He is a group 1 person, Darren, he is absolutely outstanding,” he said.

“I think they’ll work really well together; I don’t have any problems in that regard.”

Impending will now head to the paddock, with Plumptre confident he will race again in the spring time before embarking on a stud career.

“We want to race him on for James next year. He is very lightly raced, he has got a beautiful pedigree and a group 1 against his name so we’ll have a look at him when he comes back in in the spring,” Plumptre said.

“He might be a horse that you might shorten up a bit – we might look at something like the Manikato or even our own race at the VRC up the straight.”

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