An outside barrier draw has done little to diminish the confidence of James Cummings as he looks to Aft Cabin to build on his reputation as one of the country’s most exciting three-year-olds.
After resuming with a dominant win in the Eskimo Prince Stakes (1200m), Aft Cabin heads to Saturday’s Group 2 Hobartville Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill a prohibitive $1.65 elect with unibet.
While Cummings is taking nothing for granted, he is excited to see what the colt can produce second-up as Aft Cabin continues on a path towards the Group 1 Randwick Guineas (1600m) in two weeks.
“He is really, really impressive and he’s demonstrating lots of promise so far,” Cummings said.
“It’s an exciting step forward for our team. We’ve been really delighted with the progress of the horse since the Eskimo Prince, he couldn’t have started his campaign any better than he has.
“So far things have been so straightforward that we can’t help but be confident.”
Cummings anticipates Aft Cabin “being prominent” from his wide draw and adopting a similar pattern to when he won the Guineas Prelude at Caulfield in September from on the speed.
With James Mcdonald in Melbourne on Saturday, Tim Clark will do the steering in what Cummings views as a competitive renewal of the Hobartville.
“Look at Zou Tiger, he wasn’t beaten far in a Golden Rose and that’s pretty special form,” he said.
“It will be a really interesting race and a good test for our horse and we would certainly not think he’s going to be guaranteed to be too good for them.”
Stablemate Golden Mile was expected to line up in either the Hobartville or the C S Hayes Stakes over the same journey at Flemington on Saturday but wasn’t entered for either.
It means he is now unlikely to progress to either the Randwick or Australian Guineas (1600m) with Godolphin now favouring the Canterbury Stakes (1300m) for his next start.
“It is unlikely he’d run in either Guineas. It’s not impossible, but I haven’t booked a rider and I’d be leaning a lot more to running in a race like the Canterbury Stakes on the fourth of March,” Cummings said.
“We’ll get through next week before that becomes even more clear.
“It’s not ideal that it is now a preparation that has hit a bit of a diverted path, but it could work out very well for the horse and might not look entirely different to the preparation Brutal had on his way through to winning the Doncaster as a three-year-old.”
Hawkes Racing’s Brutal tackled the Canterbury Stakes second-up then finished runner-up to Winx in the George Ryder Stakes (1500m) before claiming the 2019 Doncaster Mile (1600m).