Chetwood keeps the success coming at Caulfield

A new addition to the top ranks of Australia’s sprinters emerged with the victory of Chetwood in the Listed Weekend Hussler Stakes at Caulfield on Saturday, October 8.

A winner at his previous three starts, Chetwood (John O’Shea/James McDonald) took the step up to city class graded racing in the style of a coming star.

“He’s going through his grades nicely, I thought he handled them well enough today to give us confidence to tackle something stronger over the next month-or-so,” O’Shea said.

Chetwood began smartly from his wide gate and took up a trailing position behind the leader.

With McDonald riding with patience and confidence, the son of Exceed And Excel eased away from the fence with 300m to run, asserting himself in a couple of strides and cruising to a two-length win over Rough Justice.

McDonald agreed with O’Shea’s opinion that the gelding is capable of further improvement.

“He’s got better with every run this time in – the way he coped with that suggests he’s got another good win in him,” McDonald said.

At his previous start Chetwood had won the G3 Cameron Handicap at Newcastle, a race officially rated superior to his latest success, but in reality a slightly lesser contest.

As well as adding to his personal tally, Chetwood continued an extraordinary run of success for O’Shea and the Godolphin team who have now won at least one Stakes race on each of the past eight weekends.

Along with two midweek successes, the stable has collected 15 Stakes victories since August 2, including three at G1 level.