Youth and experience on show at Flemington

A pair of two-year-olds making their racing debuts, some classic prospects, and the seasoned performer Tally all make notable appearances for Godolphin at Flemington on Saturday.

At the youthful end of the spectrum are the colts Ranier (Dwayne Dunn) and Sanglier (Damien Lane) who open their accounts in the Listed Maribyrnong Trial following encouraging efforts on the training track.

Ranier, a son of Lonhro, has impressed trainer James Cummings with his maturity and the style he showed in a recent trial.

“He’s an advanced two-year-old who seems to be on the way up and although narrowly defeated in his jump out he was closing off well under riding and looked to have a bit of improvement up his sleeve,” Cummings said.

Sanglier (Albrecht) showed his trainer similar qualities and has trained on since his trial.

“He ran in the fastest heat of the morning and did it well,” Cummings said.

“He’s a colt who’s done everything right and deserves his chance to compete here and show the improvement he’s made.”

Cummings describes Animalia (Hugh Bowman), his runner in the Listed UCI Stakes, as “an old fashioned” type of three-year-old who looms as a G1 Victoria Derby contender.

“He won well over 1600m at his last start and I feel that he’ll relish the step up to 1800m because he’s an old-fashioned style of three-year-old with plenty of stamina,” he said.

“My plan is, if he’s good enough, to have him ready in the Derby with plenty of runs under his belt.”

Another with potential is Esperance (Damien Lane) who runs in the Listed Antler Luggage Stakes, having avoided the top-level colts in last week’s Guineas Prelude at Caulfield.

“He should be well-suited on the bigger track and appears to be ready to enjoy getting out to the 1400m here,” Cummings said.

The trainer is looking to the addition of winkers to help the three-year-old filly Banish fulfil her promise in the G2 Edward Manifold Stakes.

“Banish looks to be crying out for more ground,” he said.

“She’s a filly that likes to get a long way out of her ground so we’ve added the winkers to potentially have her travelling closer on the bridle and ready to sprint with them.”

The Flemington contingent is completed by Tally who is looking to get his spring campaign back on track in the G3 Bart Cummings after a rare disappointment last start.
 
“He was saved up for a nice bit of work on Tuesday morning and he worked too well for him not to run,” he said.