After an indifferent autumn campaign, the Group 1 Caulfield Guineas hero Golden Mile was back on his pedestal in Saturday’s Group II Toyota Forklifts Theo Marks Stakes (1300m) at Rosehill.
Given a rails-hugging ride by Nash Rawiller, the 4-year-old son of Astern defeated the Tasmanian superstar The Inevitable (Dundeel) by a short-neck with Waterford (IRE) (Awtaad) a neck back in third.
Returning to the winner’s stall for the first timce since the $1million Group III ATC Callander-Presnell Stakes at Randwick last October, Golden Mile advances his record to five wins and two seconds from 13 starts with earnings of $2,846,500.
“The boys do remind me when these Group One winning put in a couple of below par ones together, they warn me to be careful,” winning trainer James Cummings said.
“It’s good to see him not only run a good race again but to get up and win in a time-honoured race like the Group Two Theo Marks. It’s special for a colt who is already a Caulfield Guineas winner. It gets the wrap back on the horse and he’s well and truly back up in lights as a Caulfield Guineas winner deserves to be. Son of Astern, he’s back on the board and he’s in the game.
“He’s a really talented colt and unfairly, he’s just been a bit forgotten about after the last couple.
“He came out humming like a six-furlong horse with the blinkers back on, the horse was travelling strongly in the run when he raced first-up and never got the opportunity to let go, ‘J Mac’ thought he was going to win the race on the day.
“In fairness to the horse, there might not have been much about it in the steward’s report, but I don’t have many horses come back to scale with the injury he had last time in the Winx. He got galloped on badly enough and thankfully he was fine. We were quite lucky the past two times he’s raced this prep he has come through a sound horse and happy to continue training. You don’t always get that chance.
“I’m not adverse to running the horse in the Premiere in three weeks, but we’ll see how he pulls up. He’s a very talented colt, we’ve kept him in training for a reason and hopefully we can land another blow. He’s now a Group Two winner as a four-year-old bull.”
Golden Mile is the best of four winners from as many to race from the stakes-winning Lonhro mare Calaverite, a half-sister to Group winners Gold Fever and Gold Rush.
Calaverite has a two year-old colt by Microphone named Kennerite and a weanling Street Boss (USA) filly.
The Gimcrack Stakes-winning daughter of Lonhro was covered by Snitzel last spring.
