The Godolphin filly Colette demolished her opposition in the Adrian Knox Stakes at Randwick on Saturday to emerge as a leading candidate for next weekend’s Australian Oaks.
The James Cummings-trained daughter of Halloween Crown quickened on the home stretch to take up the running under James McDonald, to win the Group 3 race from Toffee Tongue by two and-three-quarter lengths.
Colette is not a confirmed runner in the Group 1 Oaks as she has only seven days to recover from her career-best effort, but Cummings was keen to supplement her as a “good addition” in the race.
“We've treated her with kid gloves with a long-range plan to target an Adrian Knox which can suit a filly on the way through like her," the trainer told godolphin.com.
“She might just set up nicely and be an interesting addition to the Oaks next week if we're very, very pleased with the way she is in the next seven days.
“The gap between her last couple of runs has been important and she has enjoyed that but now she's into the serious end. But she looks like she's got the constitution to handle it.”
Colette responded to a patient and gentle ride from James McDonald gave her a patient ride before weaving through the pack at the 300m before producing a blistering turn of foot to run down Chris Waller’s Toffee Tongue under Sam Clipperton.
“She's going to have to lift again, but she’s filly on an upward curve and she’s shown tremendous improvement at each of her past three runs,” McDonald said of the horse that has now won three times and finished runner up twice in six starts.
Godolphin enjoyed a treble from the 30 runners with one non-runner they had across six centres in Australia and Japan.
Jerle was runner up in the Group 3 Widden Kindergarten Stakes behind Doubtland and Cascadian was unlucky in the Group 1 in the Doncaster Mile, both at Randwick.
Cascadian, with Tommy Berry in the saddle, could finish only ninth of the 20 runners but he was only three and-a-quarter lengths behind the winner Nettoyer after running into traffic twice in the race.
Lesage, another trained by Cummings took the Gold Class 2 Handicap under Blaike McDougall at Hawkesbury, and Yoshitada Takahashi’s Pertinacity ridden by Yuga Kawada was successful at Hanshin, Japan.
