Godolphin 3YOs to the fore on Saturday

Clinton Payne - Thursday August 24

Godolphin trainer James Cummings will trot out some more of the stable's potential spring carnival three-year-olds at Rosehill on Saturday.

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Jorda wins the Gimcrack Stakes. Photo: Steve Hart

In the spring last year Jorda scored one of the more impressive juvenile wins of last season when taking out Sydney's first-year-old race of 2016/17, the Listed Gimcrack Stakes (1000m).

The win was made more impressive by Jorda's appearance in the mounting yard where she looked more like a yearling than a two-year-old and presented with a coat like a horse straight out of a paddock.

"She come in with a big old woolly coat and she is only tiny but she is healthy and happy and she is a good little eater at home," Then Godolphin trainer John O'Shea said after the race.

Jorda went to Melbourne during the autumn before the stable pulled stumps on the filly's Blue Diamond Stakes campaign and she's returned with two solid trials in preparation for her three-year-old return in Saturday's Group III San Domenico Stakes (1100m).

"As you'd expect in the San Domenico, some of the more promising sprinters are resuming, colts like Pariah, but if this little filly who has a big action, is able to be within striking distance on the turn, then I certainly think she can run well here," Cummings said.

"She's an exciting filly if she's able to make that step up in maturity."

One of the more impressive triallers in recent weeks has been the lightly-raced Marsupial.

The Street Cry colt thumped Golden Slipper runner-up Frolic by 2-1/4 lengths on debut back in January before racing below expectations in his three subsequent runs.

On Saturday Marsupial takes on the older horses in the ASX Thomson Reuters Charity Foundation Benchmark 78 Handicap (1100m).

"He has been kept to the handicaps first-up this weekend but he is a horse on the cusp of being a black-type horse for us this campaign and into the future," Cummings said.

"He has trialled up really stylishly on two occasions ahead of his return.

"We particularly like the way he trialled at Warwick Farm when he was matching motors with a weight-for-age placed Group I sprinter Spieth.

"Look for him to be running well against the older horses. It will be an interesting test for him having just turned three to be muscling up against more experienced rivals. "

The stable also has two acceptors, Astoria and Animalia, in the Group III Ming Dynasty Quality (1400m) but that could be reduced to one runner come Saturday.

Astoria resumes in the blinkers for the first time while Animalia comes off an emphatic 7-1/4 length maiden win at Gosford 37-days ago.

"Astoria always looked like he had a bit of improvement in him and he's probably one of the better looking colts we're taking to the races this weekend," Cummings said.

"He stepped out of his box this morning looking an absolute picture.

"I've also accepted at Newcastle and I might take the easier option with Animalia.

"He's a really unique horse, quite old-fashioned, with a big action, who we'd like to see getting up over ground later on in this campaign.

"But judging by his dominant win at the provincials last month he's certainly got something to offer.

"But he might be better off at this stage keeping to the lower grades. "

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