It's Godolphin Again - Best Solution Toughs It Out in Caulfield Cup

Mark Smith - Saturday October 20

Following wins in the Group II Princess Of Wales's Stakes at Newmarket and a pair of Group 1 wins in Germany, Godolphin's Best Solution (IRE) carried his topweight to victory in Saturday's $5 million Group 1 Caulfield Cup to round out a wonderful seven days for trainer Saeed Bin Suroor and jockey Pat Cosgrave.

Last week the pair teamed up to win the Group 1 Caulfield Stakes (2000m) with Benbatl (IRE) (Dubawi).

Advertisement

It was a second win in the race for Bin Suroor after All The Good in 2008.


From a wide draw, Best Solution was slowly away and Cosgrove made plenty of use of the son of Kodiac to find a one out one back position behind the pacesetting Ace High.

After racing worse than midfield, Ben Melham set the Group 1 Underwood Stakes winner Homesman (USA) (War Front) to an all-out drive 700 metres out but Cosgrave was awake to the move and the pair singled out to stage an enthralling scrap.

Try as he might, Melham could not get Homesman's head in front and Best Solution (IRE) held on to win by a half-head with Aidan O'Brien's The Cliffsofmoher (IRE) (Galileo) one and a quarter lengths back in third with Andrew Balding's Duretto (GB) a hard-charging fourth. (photos Grant Courtney)

After winning two Group 1's in Germany to win another Group 1 in Australia is brilliant," Bin Surror said.

"I told Pat when the stalls open you need to be somewhere handy, third or fourth. He kicked early, which suited him really and he won well.

"It's been a great year. We have some very good horses. The Melbourne Cup is another big race, another dream for us, but we'll try"

Best Solution advances his record to 9 wins, 2 seconds and 3 thirds from 22 starts with earnings of $4,409,302.

A 32,000 guineas weanling and a 90,000 guineas Tattersalls yearling, Best Solution (IRE) is the lone winner from three to race out of the Kingmambo mare Al Andalyya who is a half-sister to Listed winner Kosmiche (Fastnet Rock), and to Cape Clear Island (Fastnet Rock} who was runner-up in the Group II G2 Prix Hocquart and Group III Sandown Classic Trial.

His stakes-placed granddam Kushnarenkovo (Sadler's Wells) is a sister to Group 1 winner Brian Boru and a half to Group II Herbert Power Stakes winner Sea Moon (Beat Hollow).

A Danehill half-brother to Invincible Spirit, Kodiac has risen from humble beginnings to be among Europe's premiant stallions.

After covering his third and fourth book of mares at Tally-Ho Stud at a fee of €4,000, the wonderfully versatile Kodiac stood for a fee of €50,000 this year

Advertisment
More Reading...
Call Me Handsome Repaying The Faith
Call Me Handsome (IRE) arrived in Australia off the back of a third behind rising young star Pakistan Star in a Griffin race over 1200 metres at Sha Tin back in July 2016.
Sires With Winners - Thursday July 17
Here is the full list of 40 stallions which had winners throughout Australasia today with winners and result details.
What Stallions Can Step Up in Hong Kong?
The Hong Kong racing season is over for another year, so a look at their sire tables by earnings and winners is always interesting and there is no surprise at the top with now pensioned Deep Field claiming his fourth consecutive champion sire title, but given he is now out of the picture the big question is what sires will replace him?
Another Aussie Stakes-Winner for Lope de Vega
It’s just as well Australian owners are keen on bringing in imported tried horses to Australia or the $200,000 Listed Grafton Cup (2350m) on Thursday would have looked a very skinny event, but as it happened there was a promising young stayer on top in Don Diego de Vega (Fr).
Unbeaten Filly a New Stakes-Winner for Ghaiyyath
Darley shuttler Ghaiyyath (IRE) is not returning to Australia this year after four seasons at Darley Victoria, but he was in the news overnight with a new stakes-winner after his unbeaten three year-old filly Al Uqda won the Listed Vichy Prix Madame Jean Couturie (2000m).
Exciting Aussie 3YO Awarded Champion HK Griffin
The title of Champion HK Griffin is one not bestowed lightly on a talented three year-old with two of the past three winners being Champion Sprinters Ka Ying Rising (NZ) and Lucky Sweynesse (NZ) and the exciting winner for 2024/2025 was announced last night at the final meeting of the season at Happy Valley.
No Rush with Savaglee
Star colt Savaglee is likely to be a notable absentee from all spring feature events.
Karaka Graduates Shoot for Selangor’s Seven-Figure Prize
A quality cast of four-year-olds will clash in Malaysia’s richest race this weekend, with a significant NZB influence throughout the 16-horse field.
Smart Winner for Hanseatic
Rosemont Stud’s Hanseatic added a fourth winner to his tally on Thursday at Kembla when the John Thompson trained gelding Sea Admiral opened his account.
Breeding To Win – Crystal Ball – New Season 3YOs to Follow
Who are we highlighting this week? - Analysis of the G1 winning 3YO’s for this season has made us realise how many horses on this list took giant strides from two to three, so we are looking into the crystal ball to find some juveniles we believe could end next season as G1 performers if not G1 winners.