Anamoe proves mettle in G1 race at Royal Randwick
It is the first award of its kind in the region, aimed mainly at empowering women and highlighting their achievements in the sports sector
DUBAI:ANAMOE proved he is now the premier weight-for-age galloper in Australia ater scoring a dominant victory on Friday in the G1 George Main Stakes over 1,600m at Royal Randwick.
The four-year-old entire raced second to the home turn before champion jockey James Mcdonald pressed the go-buton.
Anamoeracedcleartobeaticebathandhinged to record his ninth win with seven placings from 18 starts for prize money earnings of $5,833,275.
Although the race was robbed by the scratching of Zaaki, Anamoe showed his class and superiority and must now be the horse to beat in the weight-for-age championship of Australasia - the G1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Melbourne next month.
Trainer James Cummings was thrilled by his performance and said Anamoe would continue to improve during his spring preparation.
“That’s a great effort from the team back home and he’s just a wonderful horse, to see him come back and win first-up and that (today) has underlined his whole preparation, to have gone ahead now and won second-up.”
“That’s going to be the perfect stepping stone for him and he’s been able to pick up two important weight-for-age G1s along the way and he keeps liting his value and his profile and gets more and more atention on him which is very fiting for a wonderful horse.”
Mcdonald was also delighted with the stallion’s effort and said the five-time G1 winner would get beter with further racing.
“He’s a star. He’s so adaptable now. He’s a pleasure to ride and as soon as you hope on he oozes confidence.”
“You know where you’re going to be. He hops away and goes to sleep. He conserves energy like no other horse. He does enough to get past them and he’ll do enough to hold them at bay.”
Stablemates At Cabin and Zapateo made it a great day for Godolphin when they scored feature race wins at Caulfield in the G3 Caulfield Guineas Prelude and G3 How Now Stakes.
Meanwhile, Dubai Future finished third in Group company for a second consecutive start as he was narrowly denied in the G3 Legacy Cup at Newbury.
This season’s Listed Wolferton Stakes winner, who was subsequently third in the G2 York Stakes in July, tracked the leaders in a close fith as Fancy Man and Kemari disputed the early running.
Siskany and Stay Alert passed Dubai Future at the top of the straight before the Saeed bin Suroor-trained six-year-old cruised up ominously under Martin Harley to press Fancy Man for the lead passing the two-furlong pole.
Dubai Future continued to batle with Fancy Man until Stay Alert swooped close home for a neck success, with the same margin separating second and third in the 11-furlong contest.
Saeed Bin Suroor said: “Dubai Future tried hard again and ran another good race. We have no immediate plans and will see how he comes out of this before deciding where to go next.”