Atmosphere will attempt to give Godolphin their second victory in the Sandown Guineas when he lines up in the Group 2 race at Caulfield on Saturday.
Morton’s Fork took out the race when John O’Shea was at the helm of the racing empire and the race contested at Sandown.
The Sandown Guineas had been a good race for Darley Stud before a rebranding saw them become Godolphin while the Jack and Bob Ingham-owned Woodlands Stud had considerable success before Sheikh Mohammed purchased the studs and all horses for $500 million in 2008 to become Darley.
John Hawkes prepared Over (1999), Dexterous (2002) and Binding (2004) before Peter Snowden won with Caymans (2008), Kidnapped (2009), Tatra (2012) and Paximadia (2013).
James Cummings has only had one runner in the Sandown Guineas since taking over as Godolphin Australia’s head trainer in 2017 with Beau Geste finishing fourth to Villermont that year.
The Sandown Guineas was pushed back two weeks later into spring and transferred and transferred to Caulfield for the first time last year when, ironically, taken out by the Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained Blue Army.
Atmosphere had a spin around Caulfield on Tuesday morning to familiarise himself with the sometime difficult lay-out and Cummings’ Melbourne assistant Sean Keogh liked what he saw.
The much travelled three-year-old has remained in Melbourne since his last start second in the Listed Amanda Elliott Plate (1400m) on the final day of the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
Atmosphere commenced his career in Melbourne and won his maiden at Geelong before being whisked up to Sydney where he scored at Kembla Grange in September before striking a heavy track when finishing midfield in the Listed Dulcify Stakes (1600m) on October 1.
“He worked around here well this morning,” Keogh said.
“We brought him here this morning just to give him a look at the track and the surrounds and he handled it all well.
“He’s had plenty of experience down at Carbine Lodge and knows his way around the Melbourne stable.
“He’s come on really well since his Flemington run where he was probably been a smidge keen, so the blinkers will come off on Saturday.”
