G1 options abound for luckless Osborne Bulls

A G1 victory may have narrowly eluded Osborne Bulls in Saturday’s Lightning Stakes at Flemington, but the result still opened up plenty of lucrative autumn opportunities for the son of Street Cry.

In his first run since winning over the Flemington 1,200m course in the spring, Osborne Bulls went down by a short head to In Her Time.

But his trainer James Cummings was able to draw positives from a performance he described as “absolutely fantastic”.

“He’s run some incredible final sectionals, it was the performance of a very good horse,” Cummings said.

Among the races now open to Osborne Bulls are next month’s G1 Newmarket Handicap at Flemington, the G1 William Reid Stakes at Moonee Valley on Saturday, 23 March or the G1 Galaxy at Rosehill on the same day.

Yet another possibility is the G1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan on the Dubai World Cup program.

“The Newmarket is an obvious option so long as he doesn’t go up too much in the weights, but there are also suitable races elsewhere, including Dubai,” Cummings said.

Osborne Bulls emerged as one of Australia’s most progressive sprinters last spring when he finished third in The Everest at Randwick and won the G2 Linlithgow Stakes at Flemington and the Listed Regal Roller Stakes at Caulfield.

Earlier on the Flemington card another G1 prospect emerged with the victory of Microphone in the Listed Talindert Stakes, while the Medaglia D’Oro filly Tenley also won at Randwick.

The son of Exceed And Excel became the 11th individual Godolphin two-year-old winner in Australia this season, at the same time announcing himself as a G1 Golden Slipper Stakes prospect.

Microphone turned in a dominant display, coming from just off the pace to score a dominant win.

He will now return to Sydney where his immediate target will be the G2 Skyline stakes at Randwick on Saturday, 2 March with the Golden Slipper run at Rosehill two weeks later.

“The Skyline looks a beautiful race for him. It’s also a race in which he’s likely to run into his stablemate Bivouac,” Cummings said.

Tenley had won on debut in November and showed plenty of improvement on that effort to win Saturday’s ATC Pierro Plate.

Godolphin-owned two-year-olds have now won 14 races in Australia this season. 

Among Godolphin’s other Golden Slipper prospects Tassort is due to make his reappearance in next weekend’s G2 Silver Slipper Stakes at Rosehill while the filly Exhilarates is due to trial on Monday week.