Hauraki Earns Queen Elizabeth Stakes Start

The centrepiece of the Sydney racing year will be the next stop for Hauraki following his game second in the G1 Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill on Saturday, March 19.

In a finish that continued a frustrating run of placings for Hauraki (John O'Shea/James McDonald) loomed as the winner at the 200m only to fail narrowly to withstand the finish of The United States.

Hauraki has won three races for Godolphin and has also run six placings, including a close second in the 2015 G1 Australian Derby behind Mongolian Khan this time last year.

While the Ranvet result proved a disappointment, trainer John O'Shea drew positive conclusions from the performance.

"He's going better than he's ever gone and he's run right up to his gallops at home," O'Shea said.

Rather than contemplate dropping back a level, O'Shea said he would now set Hauraki for the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes Randwick on April 9.

"He's going straight there, I don't need to think about it," O'Shea said.

"I think he still has some improvement to make and he showed today he can hold his own with the best of them."

In the feature race of the day, the G1 Golden Slipper Stakes, Godolphin's Telperion (John O'Shea/James Doyle) turned in an incredible effort to finish fourth, only a nose outside the placings.

The son of Street Cry settled near the rear from his wide gate and had only one of the 16 runners behind him with 400m to run.

From that point Doyle weaved a path through the field and Telperion delivered what was clearly the run of the race.

The other Godolphin representatives Astern and Calliope finished 11th and 12th respectively.