The Annabel Neasham trained import Olmedo ($6 Sportsbet) scored his first win in Australia when he took out the Listed Tails Stakes over 1630m at Doomben.
The six-year-old set the target in the home straight and although Reloaded ($9) threatened to go past Olemo in the final stages with a game, persistent challenge of his own, Ryan Maloney kept Olmedo going well enough to claim victory by just under a quarter of a length.
Olmedo showed fantastic form early in his career. He won on debut and then proceeded to run three seconds in a row … all in Group company … in the Group 3 Prix de Chenes, the Group 1 Lagardere and the Group 3 Fontainebleau.
He then put the Group 1 win on the board in only his fifth start when he saluted in the Group 1, French 2000 Guineas at Longchamp.
That was back in May 2018. In eight further starts in France and England between June 2018 and October 2019, Olemo added another win in the Group 3 Gontaut-Biron as well as two runner-up finishes in Group 2 company and two fourth places in Group 1 and Group 3 contests.
He was then imported into Australia and made his local debut in the Group 2 Ajax in March 2020 where he finished unplaced, 8.60 lengths behind Imaging.
Later that year he raced for Chris Waller in two starts … the Group 1 Cantala Stakes (his eighth place there, just 2.65 lengths off Yulong Prince was a fair effort) and in the $1 million The Gong (in which he trailed in last behind Archedemus).
The entire was then transferred to the Annabel Neasham stable and was somewhat thrown in the deep end first-up after a four-and-a-half month layoff when asked to tackle The Doncaster in which she finished a distant third last behind Cascadian.
Second-up and down in class in the Tails Stakes at Doomben proved to be just the right recipe to both build Olmedo’s confidence and get him back in his winning ways and therefore his success at Doomben could be an important win moving forward.
Olmedo is now a four-time winner from eighteen starts and he also has five minor placings to his credit. To put that in perspective, fifteen of his eighteen runs have come in Group company … including five assignments at the elite level.
