A homebred for Godolphin, exciting colt Golden Mile stamped himself as a serious prospect for spring riches when scoring a dominant win in the Group III ATC Ming Dynasty Quality (1400m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
On paper it appeared a race packed with potential as a raft of up and comers looked to test their mettle at a higher level, but at the winning post one colt emerged from the pack.
Trained by James Cummings and ridden by Sam Clipperton, Golden Mile won his debut at Ballarat back in April and then resumed from a spell with an encouraging second in the Group III ATC Up and Coming Stakes behind Kibou, who has since been sidelined through injury.
He took plenty of improvement from that outing and made a mess of the opposition in this assignment, charging away from them to win by more than three lengths over promising Maurice (Jpn) colt Matcha Latte with 2021 Magic Millions $1.9million sale-topper Basquiat in third place.
“They don’t win much better than that,” said stable representative Darren Beadman.
“The race was really set up nicely for him when the pace was on and he was able to sit back with a few to stalk.
“He’s got the looks and he’s got good ability. He is out of a Group winning mare by a Golden Rose winner so he ticks a lot of boxes.”
Golden Mile looks a great candidate for the upcoming Group I ATC Golden Rose (1400m) on September 24 and Godolphin have a great record in the race having won it previously with Denman (2009), Epaulette (2012), Exosphere (2015), Astern (2016) and Bivouac (2019).
With two wins and a second from three starts, Golden Mile has already won over $160,000 in prizemoney and is the best of three winners from stakes-winning Lonhro mare Calaverite, a half-sister to Group winners Gold Fever and Gold Rush.
Calaverite has a two year-old colt by Exceed and Excel called Stanislaus, a yearling colt by Microphone and is in foal to Street Boss (USA).
Golden Mile is the fifth stakes-winner for Group I winning Medaglia D’Oro stallion Astern, who won the Group I ATC Golden Rose for Godolphin in 2016 and stands at a fee of $11,000 this spring.
