Big test and a Golden opportunity for Broadsiding and Traffic Warden in Group 1 feature.

Reputations go on the line when exciting colts Broadsiding and Traffic Warden line up on Saturday, 28 September in the G1 Golden Rose over 1,400m at Rosehill Gardens.
NSW’s champion two-year-old last season after winning four Stakes races – including two G1s – Broadsiding returns to racing  off a “European-style” preparation, while stablemate Traffic Warden is second-up after a brilliant win in the G2 Run To The Rose 1,200m at Rosehill two weeks ago.
Eleven of the best three-year-old colts in training will contest the Golden Rose, a race likened to the famous 2000 Guineas Stakes at Newmarket in England.

Godolphin Australia head trainer James Cummings has won the race twice, with Hallowed Crown when training in partnership with his grandfather Bart in 2014, and with Bivouac for Godolphin four years ago.
Broadsiding generated much hype after his wins in the G1 Champagne Stakes 1,600m and G1 J.J. Atkins Stakes 1,600m during autumn-winter and has had two barrier trials leading into the Golden Rose, both with race rider James McDonald in the saddle.

“He’s been going beautifully, we are delighted with the way he’s prepared for the Golden Rose first-up,” Cummings said.
“He wasn’t afforded a long break, we kept him ticking over and kept it all up to him to be ready to go first-up over seven furlongs.
“We got it right that he couldn’t beat his stablemate Traffic Warden in the Run To The Rose 1,200m.
“The right approach with Broadsiding was to have him first-up at seven furlongs and we have him spot-on in lung and limb, ready to do combat.
“It will be a big ask but it doesn’t matter whether you are first-up or fifth-up in a Group 1, it’s a big ask and horses have to rise to the occasion.
“All we can do is have confidence in our process and we are confident we have him where we need to have him.” 
Cummings believes Broadsiding, with four victories between 1400m and 1600m, has developed during his short lay-off and could reach even loftier heights this season.
“He has the assignment ahead of him now to cross that bridge from his two- to three-year-old campaigns, to prove he’s not just the NSW champion two-year-old,” Cummings said.
“It’s not unusual in Europe for horses to lob straight into their big targets, like the 2000 Guineas first-up.
“You see that regularly with the big stables there and it’s also uncommon for horses to have lengthy spells in Europe.
“Even during the colder months they are not in full work, they may be trotting around and resting in the stable.
“We’ve tried to keep Broadsiding occupied and when I say ticking over, he might be in a paddock but he’s continued to have our hands all over him so he doesn’t get above himself in the paddock.
“It was ambitious to take him to Queensland after a big autumn carnival, coming through the Baillieu, the Fernhill and the Champagne.
“We were quite confident we had the horse that could handle that and he relished the challenge.
“He improved again, won from an impossible position in the BRC Sires’, was huge that day.
“Horses like that get doubted by commentators who believe races like the J.J. Atkins might be an afterthought, or that horses were being asked to do too much or might be over the top.
“He demonstrated no signs of that, he thrived Broadsiding, like a typical European horse who was capable of being in work all year.”
Although a little awkwardly drawn in barrier one on Saturday, the probability of a soft to heavy track favours Broadsiding and the Too Darn Hot colt is giving connections all the right signals.
“Broadsiding does have that special presence about him and the aura of a very good horse,” he said.
“But he’s got to rise to the occasion, make that bridge from two to three, but it’s possible that there’s more to come because he’s got that beautiful European style about him, developed physically without having got too heavy.
“I think the elite horses have a desire to be good horses, thrive on the challenges we put before them, and Broadsiding has got that about him.
“They are all going to come at him and he’s got to keep beating them, but he’s got the aura and he certainly has the swagger.”

Traffic Warden was widely underrated as a two-year-old despite winning the G2 VRC Sires’ Produce Stakes over 1,400m at Flemington, running a close fourth in the G1 Golden Slipper 1,200m, before a narrow loss to Manaal in the G1 ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes over 1,400m at Randwick when he had a slight bleed.
Cummings targeted the Run To The Rose first-up and the Street Boss colt powered home over the top of Anode and Storm Boy in the final 100m.

“He absorbed that first-up effort in the Run To The Rose beautifully,” the trainer said.
“He did not lay down (stable) at all after the run.
“He’s been bouncing out of his skin on the track and he pulled up beautifully on the Sunday following that effort.
“That’s typically the A1 form going into the Golden Rose, for horses that have had a fresh-up run.
“The Run To The Rose is really the reliable form line every year.
“With the weight penalty he drops back to set weights, and he’s got that excellent record at seven furlongs already to his name.
“He was huge in the VRC Sires’, where he showed his tactical versatility, and he was huge again in the ATC Sires’ after missing the start in the Slipper.
“He turned that around and beat all but Manaal and that was on a testing track, that was the meeting many thought wouldn’t go ahead that day.
“Traffic Warden is well prepared for this Golden Rose, he’s adept in the going and he has that versatility.”
With Melbourne jockey Ben Melham to ride, Traffic Warden will attempt to join Paratroopers, Denman, Hallowed Crown, Exosphere, Astern and Bivouac as Run To The Rose winners who have completed the Golden Rose double.
“As far as Traffic Warden goes, he’s got that rare pattern in a racehorse that every time he comes to the races he elevates his rating, runs PB after PB, and you don’t see that very often,” Cummings said.
“From our perspective that’s an exciting prospect, that’s he’s got more to offer.
“I was utterly convinced you didn’t see the best of him as a two-year-old.
“In the Run To The Rose he justified our belief, because he’d been absolutely airborne in the lead-up.
“But he doesn’t quite have the draw he had first-up.
“Traffic Warden could be bolting in behind them so he’s going to need to knuckle down and rise to that at G1 level, that will be his challenge.”

Meanwhile, three-year-old filly Zeitung has her first start in Melbourne at The Valley in Friday night’s G3 Scarborough Stakes over 1,200m.
Just behind the placegetters in the G2 Silver Shadow Stakes and G2 Furious Stakes, both over 1,200m at Randwick in recent weeks, Zeitung gets a chance to claim her first Black-Type victory.

“She’s really going well that filly, beaten less than a length by the top three-year-old fillies in Sydney – excluding Autumn Glow,” Cummings said.
“Having been up against Manaal and others in the Princess Series, she’s very well placed in a very open field to be just about as good a chance as any other filly in that race.
“Hope there’s no bias there that could preclude her from getting back and running on.
“She’s certainly going well and six furlongs against the fillies should suit her nicely.”
Jamie Kah has the mount and the former champion rider will also be aboard Thames and Barber for Cummings in supporting events.