Appleby begins new Australian campaign at Mornington

The first major step in a long-range Spring plan will be taken by (The) Gold Trail when he makes his Australian debut in the Listed Mornington Cup on Saturday.

Godolphin trainer Charlie Appleby will attempt to take advantage of a special clause in the conditions for the Mornington feature that gives the winner automatic entry into next October’s G1 Caulfield Cup.

The Appleby-trained Scottish finished second to Jameka in last year’s Caulfield Cup, setting the scene for an extraordinary spring carnival that yielded five wins for his team.

Assistant trainer James Ferguson said (The) Gold Trail (Craig Williams) had pleased him in his recent work and he is expecting a strong showing from the horse who will be joined in the Mornington Cup by locally-trained Godolphin runner Tally (Andrew Mallyon).

 “He’s in peak condition and if he can put in a performance anything like his wins at his last two starts then he should be very competitive,” Ferguson said.

“He worked on Tuesday, it was routine, but I was very happy with him.”

(The) Gold Trail is a winner at his past two starts in Dubai and at Newmarket, with Ferguson likening him to Scottish as “a horse with genuine class”.

Tally’s trainer John O’Shea is also expecting a forward showing.

“Tally’s got strong form lines coming out of the Australian Cup where not a lot went his way,” he said.

“He’s out to a mile-and-a-half, he drops back in grade and has the blinkers back on.”

Godolphin and O’Shea will also be represented at Mornington by Toga Picta (Craig Williams) in the non-graded Mornington Sires Stakes and Maternal in the Benchmark 78 Handicap.