The Godolphin two-year-old team of James Cummings has hit the ground running in Melbourne.
For Sean Keogh, in charge of the Godolphin Melbourne stable, it reminds him an earlier bunch of yearlings that raced in the early two-year-old races of 2020.
“The two-year-olds have been having a proper run, similar to the cohort of 2018, I suppose,” he said.
“They seem like they’re ‘Rockin ‘N’ Rollin’.”
One of the two-year-olds from that 2018 cohort was Anamoe, who won the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes (1000m) at Sandown at his second start then as a four-year-old took out last month’s Group 1 Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.
The Merson Cooper Stakes is up for grabs on Saturday, this time at Caulfield, with Godolphin to saddle three runners – Cylinder, Heuristic and Remedies.
Like Anamoe, Heuristic made his debut in the Listed Debutant Stakes (1000m) at Caulfield in October and while Anamoe was unplaced, Heuristic finishing third.
“Anamoe did something similar to what Heuristic did,” Keogh said.
“In the Debutant Stakes he (Anamoe) was a smidge unlucky and then we took him to the Merson Cooper at Sandown, and it was possibly one of his most impressive wins, visually, that you would see.
“The quick horse at the time was Forbes from the Freedman stable and he was off and gone, but it turned out a good one that ran him down that day.”
Keogh is not labelling Heuristic the next Anamoe, but the colt did work well at Caulfield on Tuesday morning when taken there to reacquaint himself with the track.
“Heurestic worked around with stablemate Cylinder that has raced and trialled impressively in Sydney and they got around Caulfield on Tuesday in good style,” Keogh said.
Remedies has continued to train on following her debut Cranbourne win under Mark Zahra who will again ride the filly on Saturday.
“She won pretty dominantly at Cranbourne, and she came through the run in great order,” Keogh said.
“It would be lovely to see her back it up again and then go on to her next preparation.”