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Osborne Bulls poised for Dubai mission

Mike Hedge

The Dubai World Cup carnival has become a target for Osborne Bulls following his brilliant win in Saturday’s G2 Linlithgow Stakes at Flemington.

In a perfect start to the day recognised as Australian racing’s finest, Osborne Bulls’s victory followed that of Ranier in the G3 Carbine Club Stakes.

It also came after the gelding overcame an awkward start that left him near the tail of the field before he stormed home to win by three-quarters of a length.

Osborne Bulls made a belated start to racing due to chronic lameness, but he is now striding his way toward the G1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan on World Cup night.

“We’d have to have a think about it, but it has been tossed around about running this horse in the Al Quoz Sprint next year,” Cummings said.

“This might be a really interesting horse to put in front of his owner, Sheikh Mohammed, just to show him what sort of horse we can breed in Australia.”

The five-year-old son of Street Cry didn’t start racing until 15 months ago and has now won nine of his 14 starts and has also run third in The Everest, the world’s richest turf race.

Ranier, meanwhile, is on track for a classic Sydney autumn following his brilliant Carbine Club win.

In a performance that justified the unwavering faith of his trainer, Ranier did best in a hard-fought duel with the runner-up Wild Planet to score by a head.

Ranier had shown tremendous promise in his first five starts, but only broke through for his first win last month at Caulfield.

While his trainer James Cummings viewed his latest win as a substantial progression from his previous effort, he believes the colt still has more to offer.

“That win has hopefully heralded the start of Ranier’s big career ahead now that the penny is starting to drop,” Cummings said.

“But I’ve had the view for a while that he will be a much better horse in the autumn.

 “I really feel like he has earmarked himself as a Guineas colt, probably for the Australian Guineas back here in March.”

For now, though, Cummings and his team are content to savour what was an important win.

“It means a lot that on the opening day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival to have the blue colours saluting in the Carbine Club, it's a great way to start a big week,” he said.