Allergic ever reliable at Rosehill

Allergic laid claim to the title of the most consistent member of Godolphin’s Australian stable with a resounding victory in the ungraded Premier’s Cup Prelude at Rosehill on Saturday, August 13.

At his second run from a five-month spell, Allergic (John O’Shea/Brenton Avdulla) displayed the same sort of form he had shown back in the Autumn when his preparation yielded two wins and three seconds.

“He really held his form well last time in work and he’s showing every sign of doing the same this time,” said his trainer John O’Shea.

At his first run this time in, Allergic finished sixth at Rosehill two weeks ago.

“He was caught wide and they were a bit nippy for him over 1500 metres. The extra 400 metres today is more like his trip and he certainly appreciated it.”

Jockey Brenton Avdulla had Allergic in a perfect position from the jump and the pair trailed the leaders until 300m from the line.

“It worked out just right for him, he relaxed and got into a nice rhythm. The race was over before the bend,” Avdulla said.

Allergic had a length-and-a-half to spare on the line from Loophole with Marenostro in third place.

While O’Shea wasn’t surprised by the win, he had a slight concern that the five-year-old may have been carrying some extra condition.

"I said this morning I thought he’d still need the run,” O’Shea said.

"If you had a look at him in the enclosure he was still a good 10kg above where he needs to be. The soft run and the beautiful ride by Brenton offset that.”

The G3 Kingston Town Stakes over 2000m at Rosehill on September 10 is the likely Spring target for Allergic.

"Those Group III and Listed races up to ten furlongs are his bread and butter when he can get his toe in the ground,” O’Shea said.

The stable came within a couple of centimetres of a double at Rosehill when Sarajevo just failed in the ungraded Clubs NSW Handicap.

The son of Lonhro charged home from near last to finish second to His Majesty in his best effort for some time.

O’Shea was also pleased with the first-up effort of the classy stayer Magic Hurricane (Andrew Adkins) who showed considerable dash to finish fifth in the Spring Preview behind Testashadow.

“It was good to see him go around and run well. He’s getting ready for much longer races later in the Spring, so to get into the race as he did at the finish was encouraging,” O’Shea said.

Shards (John O’Shea/Brenton Avdulla), who was also resuming, finished seventh in the same race.

Also at Rosehill, the Irish import Salthouse (John O’Shea/Tim Clark) made a promising Australian debut, finishing fifth in the Mounties Group Handicap.