The John O’Shea trained Astern unleashed an electrifying finish to score a brilliant win in the Group 1 $1m De Bortoli Wines Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill today.

Astern scores a brilliant win in the Golden Rose at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.

Winning jockey James McDonald made light of a wide barrier and had Astern travelling sweetly near the tail of the field in the early and middle stages.

McDonald eased Astern ($3.20 favourite) to the outside on the home turn and gave him an uninterrupted run to the line and the Medgalia D’Oro colt went on to score a two and a quarter lengths win.

Hong Kong’s leading jockey Joao Moreira had the Chris Waller trained Omei Sword ($4.40) is a good position midfield but had trouble finding clear running in the straight but when he found some open space the filly found the line well to run into second while the winner’s stablemate Impending ($11) also found the line hard for third.

The Godolphin team of O’Shea and McDonald made it back to back wins in the Golden Rose and McDonald rated Astern better than last year’s winner Exosphere.

O’Shea will now head to Melbourne with Astern if he pulls up well and run in the Group 3 $175,000 Caulfield Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Caulfield on September 24 on his way to the Group 1 $1m Caulfield Guineas (1600m) at Caulfield on October 8.

“We thought that the Run To The Rose was an exceptional form race and if we got everything right and give him a chance he would do the job for us and he did,” O’Shea said.

“We need to get him home and see how he pulls up and we had envisaged to take him to Melbourne for the Caulfield Guineas Prelude and he would probably run the mile at Caulfield on the way that he went today.”

Astern made it two wins from two starts this campaign after scoring first up in the Group 2 $175,000 MTA Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill a fortnight ago.