Godolphin colt Telperion justified his heavy betting support to record a strong victory in the 2016 Lonhro Plate at Royal Randwick this afternoon.
Telperion finished over the top of his rivals in the 2016 Lonhro Plate at Royal Randwick this afternoon. Photo by: Steve Hart
Telperion was settled at the tail of the field by jockey James McDonald in the early stages of the Lonhro Plate and he was restrained at the tail of the field until they entered the straight.
McDonald took Telperion to the outside and he quickly picked up his rivals, but he tried to lay in when he hit the front and did not run right past Prized Icon and Spright before he eventually found the line in the last 100 metres to score a strong win.
Trainer John O’Shea was very happy with the performance of Telperion in the Lonhro Plate and he believes that the Street Cry colt is one of the most talented two-year-olds in his stable, but he is unsure where the juvenile will end up this preparation.
“He did a good job,” O’Shea said.
“James probably got there a little bit quicker than he thought, he gathered them up very quickly and he probably had a little of a look around when he got to the front.
“He is a lovely colt and we are very happy with him.
“He rates very highly and we think that when we get to the races that are a little bit longer he will really come into his own.
“He probably doesn’t need to do too much now, he will probably have one more run and then assess where he fits in and what we want to run him in.”
McDonald is excited about the number of talented two-year-olds that Godolphin have up and running this season and he was happy to add Telperion to the list of juvenile winners.
The talented hoop admitted that Telperion wavered slightly when he was about to hit the front, but he eventually got his mind back on the job to claim his maiden race win in the Lonhro Plate.
“He is a good horse,” McDonald said.
“There is a lot of good ones and it is a good position to be in for the whole team.
“I have been working these horses back home and they all do a wonderful job.
“He felt like he was just going to dart through the gap and I just didn’t want him to go left on me.”
Prized Icon was a big drifter in the lead-up to the Lonhro Plate, but he was far from disgraced in second and Spright delivered on market expectations to finish third.
