Godolphin and head Australian trainer John O’Shea have won at least one Stakes race on each of the past seven weekends in succession in Sydney and Melbourne.

The victories of Hartnell in the G1 Turnbull stakes at Flemington on Sunday, October 2 and those of, Hauraki in the G1 Epsom Handicap, It’s Somewhat in the G3 Craven Plate and Jorda in the Listed Gimcrack Stakes the previous day, took Godolphin’s winning Stakes-race total to 14 for the period that began on August 20.

As well as the G1 treble, the haul includes five G2 successes, four at G3 level and two in Listed races.

For O’Shea the sequence speaks volumes for his training skills, but he is typically reluctant to accept the credit.

“I have a fantastic staff, magnificent facilities and the quality of the horses that come to me from Darley is second to none,” O’Shea said.

As impressive as the run of success has been, it is merely the beginning of what promises to be a spectacular Australian Spring for Godolphin.

With six more weeks of top-level racing ahead and with the famous royal blue silks likely to be on show in most of the feature races of the
Melbourne Spring carnival, the opportunities for the in-form team are boundless.

In an impressive footnote to the performance of the Godolphin team, the Darley stallion Exceed And Excel, carved out yet another honour for himself over the weekend of October 1 and 2 by siring the winners of the first three Stakes races for juveniles in Australia this season.