He was a dominant winner of the Silver Eagle two starts back, before not having any luck in the Golden Eagle, and jockey Nash Rawiller is hopeful he can give Godolphin runner Vilana a much sweeter steer in tomorrow’s $1 million The Hunter at Newcastle.
After drawing the car park in barrier 20 in the $10 million Rosehill feature, the Hallowed Crown entire was never on the track and lost all possible chance of repeating his Silver Eagle effort.
He draws much better in gate nine this time around, and will come in even further to barrier seven with the removal of the emergencies.
“That’s a bit better. I think it was 20 and to be fair the other day we jumped and that horse that drew inside us, Mr Mozart, just kept us out on the outside fence for 100m and basically ended our race,” Rawiller told Sky Racing.
Despite that failure, the four-year-old has built up an impressive record winning five of nine starts to date, including one at Group 3 level, and Rawiller was still pleased with his charger’s effort two weeks ago.
“He did a great job I thought, we never got into the spot we wanted. He sort of struggled and you’re always chasing your tail from that point onwards,” Rawiller lamented.
“But he worked to the line nicely, obviously in the Silver Eagle he showed what he was made of and he can reproduce that this week.
“The horse is in good form and he’s a horse that I’ve got a lot of time for, as have the team, so looking forward to it.
Godolphin stable representative Darren Beadman also believes the track conditions may have played a part in the Golden Eagle result.
“That day I just felt the ground might have been a little bit firm, he didn’t quite let down as good as he did in the Silver Eagle. So a bit of moisture around would help,” Beadman said.
“If you took his win in the Silver Eagle into this you’d be saying he’s in the first three, there was genuine excuses last time.”
As of Friday afternoon, Vilana was on the second line of betting at $5 with the TAB.