“Where’s the winning post” James Cummings yelled as he sensed the Caulfield Guineas was going to fall to Godolphin for the second year running.
A race after watching last year’s Guineas winner Anamoe collect the Group 1 Might And Power (2000m) on Saturday, Golden Mile landed the Group 1 prize for three-year-old’s over 1600m.
Just as Anamoe had been wayward in the Might And Power, Golden Mile also wanted to do things his way before taking out the stallion making race.
And as he did aboard Anamoe, James Mcdonald was able to steer Golden Mile, the $2.70 favourite, to victory by a head with Osipenko ($17) a neck away third.
Golden Mile was always in contention for the Caulfield Guineas but became the number one seed for Godolphin when ruling favourite Aft Cabin suffered a bleeding attack and was ruled out last Saturday.
“(Grandfather) Bart and Chin Nam used to laugh amongst each other about going from the zenith of hope to the abyss of despair and that’s how I felt walking off the track last week,” Cummings said.
“But to have turned it around seven days later and still emerg with the winner, you can’t imagine what a sense of satisfaction and the fatalism for us is pretty important, pretty special to us.
“The emergence of Astern as a powerhouse stallion and we’re very lucky to have him in the barn and if he keeps producing horses like Aft Cabin and Golden Mile then we’re well and truly there with a big advantage and we’ve got that to look forward to.”
While Golden Mile has done his racing in Sydney this campaign, including finishing fourth in the Group 1 Golden Rose at Rosehill as his lead-up, the colt was accustomed to the Melbourne stable.
Golden Mile was floated to Melbourne during the week and settled at Godolphin’s Flemington stables.
“He started at Crown (Sydney) and won on debut from Carbine (Melbourne),” Cummings said.
“But at Osborne Park, the guys there, these are seriously talented people behind me, and they deserve the accolades they get because they can produce colts like Golden Mile and Anamoe.
“They saddle up perfect, present perfect and they savage the line like they’re the underdogs and that’s the way they should.”
McDonald said Golden Mile had almost thrown the race away as he wanted to run off the track when the first corner of the 1600m contest was approaching.
“It was quite messy going to the first bend.,” McDonald said.
“He actually went to go right instead of going left and was just off kilt a little bit, but once he gathered up momentum he idled into the race and had a great turn of foot.
“James was very strict on one instruction. He would rather me being held up and flashing late than going too soon and getting run down.
“I got lucky there, but he’s a good horse and he won well.”