Everyone with a love for horses and horse racing loves Cascadian (GB).
It was game over when the gleaming chestnut coat and baldy face emerged from the pack in Saturday’s $3,000,000 Group 1 Australian Cup (2000m) at Flemington.
That's three at the elite level for Cascadian (image Grant Courtney)
Ridden by Ben Melham for James Cummings, the 8yo gelded son of New Approach (IRE) defeated Numerian (IRE) (Holy Roman Emperor) by three-quarters of a length with Pounding (Exceed And Excel) the same distance back in third.
The Group 1 Doncaster Mile and Group 1 All-Aged Stakes hero advances his record to eleven wins, six seconds, and seven thirds from 47 starts with earnings of $8,263,075.
“He deserves another big Group 1. He’s a wonderful horse,” Cummings enthused.
“He’s a credit to his Highness Sheikh Mohammed for winning a big weight-for-age race on a big day in Melbourne at Flemington, and I’m just so proud of the entire team.
“I’m privileged to be here on the big stage and have competitors in races like these.
“I had a very stern meeting with my brother Edward yesterday and talked to him about how I might be able to go about winning this, and at the conclusion of it he said, ‘you go and win it this year, and I’ll be back to win it next year’.
“That’s the beauty of having the confidence that we are in these races and we’ve got the teams behind us to be competitive.
They will be queuing up to give Cascadian a home when he retires (image Grant Courtney)
“He’s a great horse Cascadian, he’s now a Doncaster winner, an All Aged Stakes winner, and he pops the Australian Cup on his mantle.
“I suppose I could run the horse in three weeks in the All Aged - he’s so adaptable, he’d run well - but that is looking like one of the races of the carnival.
“I don’t mind the idea of laying away in the Queen Elizabeth and saving for him for a turn of foot, and if he gets through, he gets through, and he might give the Japanese horse a scare.
“One thing about Cascadian, he beat Montefilia third-up last prep over 2000 by further than Dubai Honour. He might beat Dubai Honour.”
Not for the first time on the day, Ben Melham picked up on a ride that his partner Jamie Kah had enjoyed success on.
“Jamie won the Doncaster on him, and I got a bit of advice off her on how to ride him,” Melham said.
“She’s probably in the hospital watching - she’s not supposed to be - but she can’t get the Racing.com channel off.
“It was special for the horse as well; he’s been deserving of a Group 1 here at Flemington, and what a race to do it in.
“I was confident enough, I had the right hoses in front of me, and we wanted to duck and weave on him because, watching his tapes, we feel that’s how he races best (because) being wide and exposed, he’s had a lot of goes ere at Flemington and he’s never won one.
“He’s such an honest horse and to be on the quick back-up from the mile to 2000…going to the gates he was that bloody fresh I nearly couldn’t hold him going to the barriers.
“James has done a tremendous job to bring him here in that condition and to back up his All-Star Mile run with a sensational win like this is fantastic.”
Cascadian (GB) is a half-brother to three winners, including Albahr, winner of the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine.
The son of Epsom Derby hero New Approach is out of the talented Street Cry (IRE) mare Falls Of Lora, whose four wins included the Group III UAE Oaks and the Listed Distaff Stakes at Sandown.
Falls Of Lora was one of four stakes-winners for Danehill's stakes-winning daughter Firth Of Lorne, runner-up in the Group 1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches.
