At the start of August we ran a story about the 3YO’s that were entered for this year Cox Plate and aside from the usual suspects there were some ‘Cox Plate’ dreamers and one of them was unraced Lonhro colt Attica, who made a winning debut at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
A homebred for Godolphin that had five barrier trials for James Cummings, but ended his juvenile season unraced, Attica is now with Joe Pride.
With two more barrier trials last month in which he placed both times with Adam Hyeronimus in the saddle, Attica finally made it to the races with a 1400m maiden selected as his starting point.
Hyeronimus kept the ride and duly brough the big strong colt home a winner, albeit had to earn his fee as Attica is very green and not entirely sure about finding top gear. He got there late to score by half a length over the fast finishing Snitzel colt Decorum, the full brother to Group I winner Switzerland.
“He's got a lot of talent, and that was probably my only worry today, is just how he would handle the race day experience,” said Adam Hyeronimus.
“Barrier two helped, and I was able to sort of make the horses work outside me and then when I did get crossed, I was three deep, but he's a big horse, so we were able to get him rolling. He had me working before the turn, but the last furlong was very good, and he's a horse that's definitely on the rise.”
Joe Pride was hoping to see Attica deliver under race conditions and can now look at raising the bar.
“It’s his first start in a race and you've got to come here and do it under race pressure as much as he's shown us at home,” said Pride.
“He's just a very laid-back casual type, so he needed to wake up today, and he did that under race pressure, which is good.
“He's only just turned three, I think it was yesterday actually, the 2nd of September, so he's officially just turned three.
“He’s a big baby and a horse who's got to get his handle on it all, but for the spring, I'd love to think we can get him into a stakes race and see how he handles that next level of pressure.
“There is plenty to like about him and there's plenty of him. He's a big, strong, strapping boy, and I'm sure his future's very bright.”
Attica is the first foal of multiple Group winner Savatiano, who won over $2.3million with a long list of highlight wins including the Wyong Mona Lisa Stakes which will be run this Friday. For those who remember the Street Cry (IRE) mare well, they will also recall she did win the 2021 Group I ATC Canterbury Stakes beating Mizzy, but then lost the race due to a positive swab so went to stud without her deserved G1 win on the resume.
Savatiano has a 2YO colt to follow by Palace Pier (GB) called Sabates and a yearling colt by I Am Invincible, but no foal this spring after missing to Extreme Choice.
