Impending and Painted Firetail get their chance at Randwick

An opportunity to fulfil his substantial potential has been presented to Impending when he drops back to his own age in Saturday’s G2 Arrowfield Sprint on a Randwick undercard that offers several strong Godolphin prospects.

A colt who spent much of his last preparation in the shadow of his stablemate Astern, Impending (James Doyle) has raced three times this autumn, producing results his trainer John O’Shea says are better than they may appear.

“His last couple of results are probably not truly reflective of how well he’s going,” O’Shea said.

Impending’s past two appearances have been in high-class events against older horses with the merit of his second-last run when fourth to Le Romain in the G1 Canterbury Sakes having since been verified by the second-placed Chautauqua who last week won the G1 Darley TJ Smith Stakes. 

“He made up good ground against older horses at both of his past two runs and this time he drops back to his own age and I really like his draw in a race he’s been set for all preparation,” O’Shea said.

The talented filly Painted Firetail (Tommy Berry) finds herself in a contrasting position to her stablemate as she jumps in grade in the G2 Sapphire Stakes, but O’Shea is looking forward to giving her the chance to earns some black type.

“Painted Firetail, on face value, looks to be out of her grade in the Sapphire,” O’Shea said.

“But the rationale behind running her there is that she’s always very, very good first up and she’s an exceptional wet-tracker.”

Godolphin and O’Shea go to the Listed South Pacific Classic with three runners, Bryneich (Corey Brown), Bezel (James Doyle) and Peacock (Tommy Berry), with each holding a valid claim.

“Bryneich is coming out of really good G2 form early in the autumn and is fit and ready to run well,” the trainer said.

“Bezel has been disappointing so far this autumn, but I thought he trialled well recently and he worked particularly well on Tuesday morning.

“Peacock’s always been a horse that we felt would appreciate wet ground. His first up run was very good in the Australia Stakes at Group One, he didn’t handle the firm track after that and I wouldn’t be surprised to see him bounce back and run a nice race.”