Astoria follows a familiar path to G1 Victoria Derby

Trainer James Cummings is confident his G1 Victoria Derby runner Astoria has the class to win the Australian season’s first blue riband on Saturday, and he knows the colt has had the right preparation.

And his instincts tell him the son of Medaglia d’Oro has inherited the stamina to win Saturdays Derby. 

“He’s going to have to go to a new level on Saturday, but the fact that he’s got enough class to win over a mile at Group level which he did second up in the Spring Stakes at Newcastle is a big factor in his favour,” Cummings said.

Cummings won last year’s Derby with Prized Icon before taking up his position at Godolphin, and has guided Astoria (Damian Lane) through a similar campaign.

Both three-year-olds came through the G3 Gloaming Stakes and the G1 Champion Stakes in Sydney before coming to Victoria for their final lead-ups, Prized Icon for the G3 Moonee Valley Vase and Astoria for the Listed Geelong Classic.

“What we are confident about is that Astoria has had a terrific grounding to be running well at the 2,500m, not only off a 2,200m run last start, but he’s had plenty of racing this preparation,” Cummings said.

“He’s a classy colt and he’s back now to set weights after giving weight away in the Geelong Derby trial.

“It will be exciting to see Astoria out to the Derby distance for the first time. It’s a great test of character and fortitude for a young horse.“

Astoria has an abundance of middle-distance performers in a pedigree that includes Octagonal, the champion of his era, whose 14 wins included three at 2,400m, among those, the 1996 AJC Derby.

Closer up in his pedigree are top-class runners like Viscount whose best wins were at 1600m and that colt’s mother Antwerp who wasn’t tried beyond 2,100m.

But Cummings hasn’t had any hesitation in running Astoria in the Derby.

“He looks great, he’s strong over the concluding stages in his gallops and I was pleased with his first run in the Melbourne direction,” he said.