After a long wait, Aeronautical has finally delivered the win to give his trainer Lionel Cohen confidence he can go on to bigger and better things.
Sent out the $3.60 favourite in Saturday’s Men Of League Central Coast (1400m), Aeronautical travelled comfortably midfield for Jason Collett and unleashed a powerful finish to beat the consistent Coup Ay Tee ($9) by 1-1/2 lengths with Tromso ($19) another 1-3/4 lengths third.
The winner of the Listed Rosebud in August 2011, Aeronautical had failed to live up to the early hype and Cohen admitted it had been frustrating.
But the options opened up following his win with the Group One Railway Stakes in Perth a possible target.
“It’s a relief. He’s been back for a while,” Cohen said.
“I said in the past I don’t want to make any excuses. I know he’s got the ability but one or two of the runs haven’t gone his way.
“Today I came to the races with him as well as he could be. I was extremely confident with his well being.”
Cohen is a former South African who settled in Australia two years ago and decided to take out a training licence after being hugely successful as an owner-breeder in his homeland, most notably with multiple Group One winner Sun Classique.
He set Aeronautical on a path towards the Randwick Guineas in the autumn but he didn’t make the race, with the best of his six starts a second to Emotional Circus in May.
Saturday’s win came at Aeronautical’s third start this campaign.
“I said to myself and people I spoke to before the race, no excuses today for you,” Cohen said.
“He’s a lovely horse to train. He never went off. It’s just things never worked out.
“With hindsight if I could have it all over again I would probably select the races slightly differently.”
Cohen said the owner, himself, needed to have sit down and have a drink to decide where to go next.
“I don’t want to get ahead of myself,” he said.
“There are options for him. But I just felt I needed to get over that hurdle of winning with him first.
“Melbourne is a possibility and if we can qualify for the Railway in Perth we could go there.”
