His trainers held him in high enough regard to throw in a Golden Rose nomination last year and Getafix is finally starting to deliver on that promise.
After posting a facile win on the Kensington track last start, the three-year-old made a seamless transition to Saturday company with a barnstorming performance in the TAB Handicap (1400m) at Randwick, arriving in the final strides to nail leader Cool Jakey by a nose.
Along with subsequent Group 1 Randwick Guineas winner Linebacker, Getafix was considered one of John O’Shea and Tom Charlton’s most exciting young talents 12 months ago but took time and patience to start living up to expectations.
“The things you can see him do in the mornings if you ask him to do them, he’s a big, powerful horse,” Charlton said.
“He has got good capability of going to stakes level in time.
“We will just keep building his confidence. He is a real confidence horse. He’s got the ability to feature in good races.”
Handled patiently by Jason Collett, Getafix ($4) settled midfield on the fence before taking a gap in the straight and surging to the line to run down Cool Jakey ($6.50), with It’s A Knockout ($2.05 betting fav) best of the rest, another length away third.
Charlton said Getafix was still a work in progress but the fact he had beaten older, more seasoned horses on Saturday was a positive sign.
“That was (benchmark) eighty-eight grade and he’s a three-year-old so that’s a fairly good effort,” he said.
“At the end of their two-year-old season, he and Linebacker were the ones we thought could shape up pretty well and he has just taken a bit more time to work towards that.”
Charlton was unsure of immediate plans for Getafix while also confirming Linebacker had returned to the stable and was a month away from his first barrier trial with the Epsom Handicap (1600m) in October his immediate goal.
Earlier in the day, Royal Supremacy ($19) showed a glimpse of the talent he’d displayed in Europe with a promising victory in the Eremein Handicap (1800m).
A three-time Group placegetter over staying journeys in England and Italy, the Ciaron Maher- trained four-year-old will be freshened for a carnival campaign with Maher’s assistant Johann Gerard-Dubord saying there were a plethora of options.
“He will stay a lot further than that and that should give him a bit of confidence,” Gerard-Dubord said.
“He’s a spring horse. Now he’s up and going we will space his runs but he is obviously good fresh.
“There are some nice races. There is a race like the ‘Metrop’ (Metropolitan) if he’s up to better and all those Cup races so hopefully he will keep going the right way and we’ll see a lot more of him.”
