Godolphin’s Australian operation has ended the latest racing season with a record prizemoney haul and the promise of an even better year ahead.

A pair of winners added on the stable’s final race day of the Australian season on July 29 took the tally to 224 races won and five G1 victories to Astern, Hauraki, Hartnell, It's Somewhat and Impending.

The star for the year among the locally-trained team was the evergreen Hartnell who won the G1 Turnbull Stakes and spent much of the rest of the season chasing home the champion mare Winx. 

His eight runs for the year yielded almost A$2.2-million and earned him equal fifth place in the official world rankings after winning the G1 Turnbull Stakes and finishing second in the G1 Cox Plate and third in the G1 Melbourne Cup.

The team achieved a total prizemoney haul of almost A$19.5-million in racetrack earnings, with English-trained Godolphin runners in Australia in the 2016-2017 season adding a further A$3-million to the total.

The bulk of the Australian-based winners were prepared by three trainers, John O’Shea, Darren Beadman and James Cummings, the latter finishing the year with a flourish, leading in his first Stakes winner for Godolphin on the final Saturday of the racing year when two-year-old Bandipur won the Listed Lightning Stakes in Adelaide. 

Cummings saddled 11 winners in his first three weeks as Head Trainer in Australia and leads the team into the new season with commitment and confidence – and with Hartnell again looking to be the centrepiece of the coming Spring.

“Hartnell has returned in good shape and is very fresh having had only four starts during a very wet Autumn. He’ll resume in the G2 PB Lawrence Stakes at Caulfield in three weeks and go on to the G1 Makybe Diva Stakes and then to the Turnbull,” Cummings said.

Cummings also named the G1 Doncaster Handicap winner It’s Somewhat as a candidate for further high honours, along with the G1 Stradbroke Handicap winner Impending and a strong group of rising three-year-olds including Kementari, Jorda and Alizee.

Cummings summed up some of the stable’s leading Spring prospects:

•It’s Somewhat: “We envisage some weight-for-age targets later in the Spring, probably some of the feature mile races”.

•Impending: “He has blossomed again after a G1-winning Brisbane campaign and looks a much more mature version of his old self. The G1 Manikato Stakes a likely target.”

•Kementari: “Has returned every bit as impressively as when he left off with a four-length win in a strong two-year-old handicap. He will be one of our most important colts heading towards the G1 Golden Rose.”

•Jorda: “The Gimcrack Stakes winner who was held back from her two-year-old Autumn and has been given the opportunity to grow and strengthen. She has trialled well and is one of our more exciting fillies.

•Alizee: “Astern’s half-sister and a highly promising maiden filly who would surprise no-one if she improved dramatically.  A potential G1 Flight Stakes filly.

•Sanctioned: “A mouth-watering colt who has returned with a stylish trial win in July and look set to kick-off in the early colts races of the Sydney Spring. I’d love to think he’s one of our leading Derby contenders.

Cummings also has high ambitions for other proven performers, such as Stakes-winning filly Ghisoni, the potential sprinter-miler Souchez, the Street Cry colt Trekking and Veranillo, who is a likely contender for the G2 Danehill Stakes over the Flemington straight course.