A Caulfield and Melbourne Cups campaign is on the agenda for the Gai Waterhouse trained Julienas after the import took out the Listed $150,000 Carlton Mid Wyong Cup (2100m) at Wyong today.
Jockey Nash Rawiller always had Julienas in the first four and made a line of three rounding the rounding the home turn with Kelinni and Storm Burst before holding on in a tight finish from the fast finishing Gazza Guru.
Gazza Guru had to slice through a narrow gap for Brenton Avdulla to grab second just in front of Storm Burst and the Chris Waller trained Kelinni.
Stable foreman Mark Newnham said that Julienas will now head towards the Group 1 $400,000 The Metropolitan (2400m) at Randwick on October 6 in an endeavour to qualify for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
Julienas is one of many European gallopers that Waterhouse is aiming towards Melbourne and the six year old from England has shown improvement at all his three Australian starts.
“There’s been a lot of work into getting these UK horses,” Newnham said.
“They’ve come up trumps with this horse today and with Glencadam Gold last Saturday.”
“They keep improving every week, today’s he’s only third up, so at this rate of improvement, there’s a good win in him.”
“We’ll get then qualified for the Cups first, hopefully that’s through the Metropolitan and then attack Melbourne after that.”
Rawiller was at his best in a driving finish to wrap up a winning double for himself and the Waterhouse stable with Miss Stellabelle scoring for the combination earlier in the day in the Listed $120,000 McNamee Constructions Mona Lisa Stakes (1350m).
“It always helps to have Nash. He produces two terrific rides for us today,” Newnham said.
Rawiller feels that Julienas has shown enough improvement from his three runs to date to take the next step and be competitive in higher company.
“He’s got the improvement there to take the next step and the penny is just starting to drop with the horse,” Rawiller said.
Julienas and third placegetter Kelinni had a tenacious betting dual with Julienas getting the nod on jump time to start the $2.50 favourite just in front of Kellinni at $2.80.
Locally trained runner up Gazza Guru started at the good odds of $15 nd tried hard and with a clear run in the straight might have reversed the placings.
