Italian Derby winner Goldstream is likely to take the best track work form of any All Aged Stakes runner into the weight-for-age race as the import prepares for his Australian debut.
Thanks in part to stablemate Lucia Valentina’s runaway win in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes, Goldstream has convinced his high-profile connections he won’t be out of his place on Saturday.
“He can work with Lucia Valentina. But she’s a professional racehorse whereas Goldstream just does things wrong,” Australian Bloodstock’s Luke Murrell said.
In seven overseas starts, Goldstream hasn’t raced at less than 1600m in a career that includes an emphatic Italian Derby win over 2200m.
It’s a resume that would normally have the four-year-old marked for a spring Cups campaign but since going into work for Kris Lees, Murrell said Goldstream had shaped more like a 1600m to 2000m horse.
This unexpected sharpness in the import’s legs has raised some All Aged expectations.
“On one or two bits of work, it suggests he won’t be too far away but we’re probably not heading there thinking we are a winning chance,” Murrell said.
In a week when Australian Bloodstock expanded their thoroughbred portfolio with the purchase of Japanese horse Tosen Stardom, Murrell said Goldstream had been identified as good enough to make an impact at the top level.
“We think he’ll be a Group One horse eventually and the All Aged will give us a good line on where he fits in the spring,” he said.
Jockey Brenton Avdulla is no stranger to Goldstream under race conditions.
Avdulla rode the entire into fourth place in last year’s Secretariat Stakes won by subsequent Cox Plate placegetter and Hong Kong Vase winner Highland Reel.
“He was heavily backed and unfortunately he went to pieces in the parade ring and came out of the race with a virus,” Murrell said.
“Obviously he was beaten by a good one, although I’m not convinced we are that far off Highland Reel and it’s disappointing you go all that way and the horse is not right.”
With Lees trying to add to his Group One autumn collection after winning the Randwick Guineas and Queen Elizabeth, Goldstream hasn’t been completely ignored by bookmakers in the All Aged.
In a market headed by the Chris Waller-trained colt Press Statement at $3 from Malaguerra ($4.40), Goldstream is a $13 chance.
Waller has cleared Kermadec for an All Aged start despite a dismal Doncaster Mile run.
Winner of the 2015 Doncaster, Kermadec was rated one of the few threats to Winx in this year’s edition before finishing well down the course.
Waller told Racing NSW stewards Kermadec had responded well to chiropractic treatment for muscle soreness.
