There could be a nice race in-store for Godolphin's Tamerlane after the 3yo son of English Derby and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero Golden Horn came with a barnstorming finish to win the opener over 1300m at Randwick on Saturday.
Ridden by Hugh Bowman for trainer James Cummings, Tamerlane was a conspicuous last early as a fired-up Vreneli took up the running.
Saving ground along the rail turning for home, Bowman angled Tamerlane to the outside at the 250m to set out after the I Am Invincible filly Selburose. Keeping up a strong gallop, Tamerlane evened up with Selburose 50m out to go on and win by a long neck.
Top-weight Vreneli (Wandjina) battled on gamely to finish a further three-quarter length back in third.
It was the third win in nine starts for Tamerlane, imported in-utero with his dam Wordcraft (GB) in 2017.
A daughter of the champion stallion Shamardal (USA), Wordcraft (GB) is the first foal of Forensics, winner of the Group 1 STC Golden Slipper Stakes, Group 1 STC Queen of the Turf Stakes, and Group 1 VRC Myer Classic.
Darley sent the daughter of Flying Spur to Europe intending to race her there, but she failed to acclimatise. Wordcraft (GB) was her first foal, and she was clearly talented.
In a career restricted to seven starts at three, Wordcraft (GB) won her first two starts at Newmarket and Kempton, second three times at Newmarket (x2) and Salisbury, and was third at Newmarket. Her only failure came at her final start.
A $900,000 purchase by Woodlands Stud at the 2006 Easter Yearling Sale, Forensics was inherited by Darley when Sheikh Mohammed paid a reported $500 million for the Ingham family's racing and breeding empire in 2008.
Repatriated to Australia in 2014, Forensics has a 3yo gelded son of Lonhro named Vucetich, who won twice at Newcastle in January, and an unraced 2yo Medaglia d'Oro (USA) named Victims. She missed in 2018 and 2019 before being covered by Blue Point (IRE) last spring.
Wordcraft (GB) has an unraced 2yo Lonhro filly named Speech, a yearling colt by Frosted (USA) and was covered by Lonhro last spring.
