A GREAT weekend for winners in the Godolphin blue continued down under, when the Godolphin head trainer James Cummings-trained Paulele, a son of Dawn Approach (New Approach) came from last to first on Saturday, and captured the A$1.5 million Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot in Perth.
Paulele is the second Group 1 winner for his sire, who now stands at Jim Bolger’s Redmondstown Stud, and the owner/breeder/trainer supplied the first in the shape of the 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes hero, Poetic Flare. The good-looking sprinter caught Kissonallforcheeks in the shadow of the winning post.
Cummings sent out his first winner in 2015, and has now won 37 Group 1 races, and the trainer’s decision to swerve the A$15 million The Everest at Royal Randwick last month was fully vindicated with this victory. Like their US Grade 1 winner at the weekend, Paulele is pencilled in for a place on the Darley Australia roster in the future.
The four-year-old Paulele improved his record to eight wins and six placings from 21 starts, and his earnings passed the A$2.4 million mark. His wins have come from five to six furlongs, and also include the Group 2 Schillaci Stakes, Group 2 Roman Consul Stakes, a pair of Group 3 races and a listed success. He has been placed a couple of times at Group 1 level too.
So pleased
After the win Cummings said: “It was such a scintillating performance. He let go like a jet; I’m so proud of him, so pleased. He’s got that Group 1 we so desperately wanted to get with him. He’s just earned his ticket onto the roster, and now he becomes a 10 or 20-year project.”
Paulele lack nothing on the female side of his family when it comes to being a stallion prospect too.
He is one of three stakes winners from his Flying Spur (Danehill) dam Chatoyant, who won four races over five and five and a half furlongs. Eight of her 10 foals have started and all but one have won. They also include Group 3 winner Tessera (Medaglia D’Oro) and Paulele’s closely related sibling, Montsegur.
The latter mare, a daughter of New Approach (Galileo), won a Group 3 at two, and now she is making a splash at stud, the best of her four winners being the dual group winner Heresy (Street Boss).
Australian family
The dam side of the pedigree is full of blacktype winners. Chatoyant is a half-sister to the Group 1 Myer Classic winner Bonaria (Redoute’s Choice), Group 3 winner Time Out (Rory’s Jester), and the Group 3 winner and twice Group 1-placed Legally Bay (Snippets). While this is an out-and-out Australian family, there is one horse that will be familiar to European racegoers.
Legally Bay had seven winning offspring, but it was when she mated with Fastnet Rock (Danehill) that she was at her best. She bred three stakes winners and one stakes-placed winner from that cross, and the best of these was the rarity of a Group 1 winner in both hemispheres, Merchant Navy.
Winner of the Coolmore Stud Stakes down under, he landed the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot. His full-sister Jolie Bay (Fastnet Rock) was a Group 2 winner and almost pulled off a family double when runner-up in the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes.
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