James Cummings and Godolphin will delay making their decision on which horse will run in The Everest after potential combatants Paulele and Ingratiating filled the quinella on Saturday.
The Godolphin duo finished one-two in the Group 2 Schillaci Stakes (1100m) at Caulfield, a race that Trekking won for the team in 2019 before going on to run third in The Everest the following week.
“We’ve got to talk about what horse we’ll run in The Everest,” Cummings said.
“Both these bulls are capable of a seven-day back-up.
“I backed Paulele up once with confidence in the Randwick Carnival and he ran third. I backed up Ingratiating into a Blue Diamond and he was only just beaten.
“Both are capable, and we’ll talk about what we do.
“Meanwhile the Manikato is sitting there and they’re going to run slashing races if we hold them back for that, so we’ve got some options with both.
“They’re cracking horses with excellent two-year-old form, good looking horses and I promise you that they’re very hard to make so we have to look after them.”
Sent out the $2.15 favourite under James McDonald, Paulele held off stablemate Ingratiating ($7.50) by three-quarters-of-a-length with Zoustyle ($5.50) a length away third.
McDonald took the sit behind the speed set by Zoustyle and Queen Of The Ball and there were some anxious moments in the straight as Paulele angled for a run.
Paulele was struck over the head by whip of Damien Oliver as he took a narrow opening before going on to a strong win.
“Well, he was five-and-a-half furlongs up a furlong this afternoon, and James was very cool about how he was approaching the race and that is exactly how I wanted it to be,” Cummings said.
“He remained one-and-a-half, two off in the early stages but he wasn’t worried to be in the box seat 200 (metres) from home being held up.
“It’s easy to worry about being pocketed, but when he had the opportunity to burst through the gap, he looked bloody good in the last furlong or last half-furlong getting to the line.
“He’s a very impressive sprinter and the stablemate is a very good horse, too.
“Both colts are flying, and it is a great credit to the team.”