GODOLPHIN STAR SET TO SHOW VERSATILITY

The daughter of Hallowed Crown has been in imperious form of late and is chasing another landmark victory on day 2 of The Championships however she will be facing a much drier track than she’s previously won on.

Colette won both last year’s Australian Oaks and the $7.5m Golden Eagle on Heavy surfaces and also defeated a strong field on soft going more recently in the Group 2 Apollo Stakes at Randwick

The ground facing Collette this time around however will be a different proposition. With the ground rated a Soft 5 in mid week, there isn’t much moisture in the forecast coming into the week which will mean the track is likely to be in the Good range by the weekend. 

The Godolphin stable stars only previous win on Good ground was as a three year old when winning at Kembla Grange. Since then she has largely struggled to replicate her wet track form on good going but it’s not something that concerns Cummings.

“I don‘t really worry about it too much,” Cummings said.

“I gave her the opportunity to prove herself on the good track and she ran some good races on good tracks during the spring.”

Colette drops back in distance for the Group 1 affair and whilst she options to run in the Sydney Cup or the Queen Elizabeth Stakes Godolphin have opted to run her against her own sex. 

“While we were brimming with confidence that she was perfect to run another good race there (in the Ranvet), we didn't think it was worthy pushing her on with the training required to get her to a Sydney Cup,” Cummings said.

“It would have entailed a run in the Tancred or run in the Chairman's last weekend so for that matter we didn’t want to put her through the gruelling training to get her to the mile and a quarter race.

“It’s enabled me to do a little bit less with her. Not exactly by design but certainly I think she will be well suited.

“She will find herself slotting for her grand final in the Queen Of The Turf and luckily we have got a mare versatile enough to be able to still perform at that level over that distance.

“We were well aware of that at the beginning of the preparation and that‘s of course why we had her in the nominations for all of those races.”

Colette currently sits on the second line of betting for the Queen Of The Turf alongside Odeum at $7 whilst favourite Probabeel leads betting at $2.70.