Flashy colt Astern has jumped to the top of the market order for the Golden Rose Stakes after scoring a classy first up win in the Group 2 $175,000 MTA Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill last Saturday.
Run To The Rose winner Astern, above, blue colours, has jumped to the top of the market order for the Golden Rose Stakes at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.
Astern displaced Run To The Rose runner up Star Turn at the top of the market order at Ladbrokes.com.au and is now a clear $4.40 favourite for the Group 1 $1m Golden Rose Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill on September 10.
The John O’Shea trained Astern has firmed in dramatically from double figure odds while The Team Hawkes trained Star Turn is now on the fourth line of betting at $8.50.
Star Turn’s stablemate Divine Prophet is the second pick at $6.50 just ahead of the Chris Waller trained Omei Sword at $7.50.
Divine Prophet resumed from a spell to score a last to first win in the Group 3 $125,000 Primo Smallgoods Up and Coming Stakes (1300m) at Randwick on August 20 while Omei Sword was very impressive in winning Group 2 $175,000 Alpha Flight Services Silver Shadow Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on the same day.
Astern is now a winner of four races from five starts and O’Shea is prepared to forgive him for his only defeat when eleventh to Capitalist in the Group 1 $3.5m Longines Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill during the Sydney Autumn Carnival.
“Apart from that blemish in the Golden Slipper where he didn’t have a good preparation in the lead up to it and a wide barrier, he has a wonderful record,” O’Shea said.
O’Shea said that an uninterrupted preparation this campaign has resulted in early Spring Carnival success for the Medaglia D’Oro colt.
“His preparation has gone beautifully,” O’Shea said.
“At this level you just can’t afford to have anything go wrong, you’ve got to draw well and you’ve got to have those lovely James McDonald rides. It’s just a reflection on what a great team effort this is.”
Godolphin’s number one jockey James McDonald threw out an early tip when he selected Astern of the stable’s other three runners in the Run To The Rose and he is confident that the colt will run out a strong 1400m in the Golden Rose Stakes.
“He’s a different animal compared to his two-year-old season and that’s the only reason I went that way,” McDonald said.
“I thought he was the real deal as a two-year-old, I think he is even more of the real deal now.”
“He’s such a good horse, 1400m should be no issue for him, I hope so anyway.”
O’Shea’s other three runners came up with mixed results in the Run To The Rose with Impending running a solid race to finish third, three and three quarter lengths behind his stablemate, Tessera finishing in seventh positions while Telperion could only beat one runner home to finish eleventh.
Golden Rose Stakes market order at Ladbrokes.com.au: $4.40 Astern, $6.50 Divine Prophet, $7.50 Omei Sword $8.50 Star Turn $10 Evacuation, $11 Yankee Rose, $13 Derryn, $15 Impending, $17 El Divino, Leotie, $26 Defcon, Prized Icon, Mediterranean.
