James Mcdonald has cheekily quipped, ‘Anamoe who?’ after the Group One winner’s stablemate Paulele returned with a rousing performance in the Rosebud at Randwick.
Anamoe is predicted to be one of the major players in the three-year-old features this spring but his James Cummings-trained stablemate Paulele has set the bar high, making light of his 59kg to dash home from midfield and land a stunning first-up win.
Favourite Remarque was desperately unlucky, striking a traffic jam in the straight before switching across heels and attacking the line late to grab third with In The Congo splitting the class colts.
Having his first race ride on Paulele after trialling him at Hawkesbury last month, McDonald was in awe of the three-year-old’s return.
“Anamoe who? He’s going to have to be on his A-game,” McDonald said of the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes winner.
“That was super. He gave me an awesome feel in the trial the other day, albeit a quiet trial.
“I’ll tell you what, James (Cummings) was so confident before the race, he said he’d really come on. You could just tell he was very excited about producing him today, very good colt.
“I thought 59 here today was going to be a bit of a stumbling block for him and credit to him, he produced an electric turn of foot and put a good field away.”
The Listed win capped a great afternoon for Sydney’s premier jockey, giving him his fourth victory in eight races after he claimed the opening three events on the Randwick card aboard Hot Spring Gold, Harpo Marx and Dream Runner.
Paulele won the Group Three Kindergarten Stakes on a soft track in the autumn and Cummings was pleased to see him turn in a similarly impressive performance on a good surface on Saturday.
He believes the colt’s forte is sprinting and plans to keep him to shorter courses with his immediate goal the San Domenico Stakes (1100m) on August 28.
“We think he’s a fast colt so I wouldn’t be getting carried away about expecting him to run a mile,” Cummings said.
“We’ve talked about various targets we might have. The thing for this colt is picking off the right races on the way through and I think the San Domenico is looming large as a very suitable target second-up for him.
“Paulele has developed a beautiful record and he’s got a little bit of upside too because he came here off what was a relatively light preliminary.”
Paulele ($8.50) scooted clear to score by 2-1/2 lengths over In The Congo ($4.20) with Remarque ($2.90 fav) losing no admirers, another half-neck back in third.
