More To Come In Strong Australian Season

A concerted Adelaide campaign begins this weekend for Godolphin in Australia to be followed by a typically strong assault on the Brisbane Winter meetings as the team attempts to end the local racing year on a high.

With three months to go in what is shaping as one of its best seasons ever, Godolphin is targeting several of the 12 G1 races remaining on the Australian calendar, starting with the Australasian Oaks in Adelaide early next month.

Trainer John O'Shea and his team will also tackle the G1 South Australian Derby along with the corresponding G1 Oaks-Derby double in Brisbane.

The four classics are among 12 G1s and more than 70 other graded races to be run around the country before the season ends on July 31.

While the future must always be of greater concern than the past in a racing stable, the conclusion of the Sydney Autumn racing carnival last weekend and the beginning of the Adelaide and Brisbane meetings offers the opportunity to reflect on the season to date.

In the first nine months of the 2015-2016 year, Godolphin's Australian-based horses have collected more than A$12 million in prizemoney, eclipsing the total for the full 12 months of the previous year.

So far this year, Godolphin's royal blue colours have been carried to victory in Australia in 35 Stakes races by 24 individual horses, compared to 26 Stakes wins for all of 2014-2015.

For O'Shea, though, the focus is firmly on the future.

"We are building all the time, looking to the future and trying to do the best for our horses and get the best results for His Highness Sheikh Mohammed," O'Shea said.

"There are plenty of good races still to come this season and we also have some strong prospects for next season among the horses who came through this year. That's where our attention is concentrated."

Among the G1 aspirants to appear in coming weeks are Asinara, a Teofilo filly who has won two of her six starts and has the G1 Australasian Oaks in Adelaide in her sights.

O'Shea will also send Tarquin and Unbreakable to Adelaide for the G1 SA Derby.

Among the big team heading north to Brisbane is the evergreen Generalife whose targets will be the G1 Doomben 10,000 and the G1 Stradbroke Handicap. Among the three-year-olds making the trip will be the colts Unbiased and Divine Sanction and the fillies Seltzer and Ambience while the G2-winning two-year-old colt Souchez will be given his chance in the G1 J J Atkins Stakes.

Among the open-class runners will be the dual stakes winner It's Somewhat and Hauraki who are being set for the G1 Doomben Cup.

Godolphin's Australian operation will also be represented in Hong Kong next month by Bow Creek who runs in the G1 Champions Mile at Sha Tin, with Holler, a winner of three Stakes races this season including one at G1, likely to embark on a Royal Ascot mission.