First Saturday Sydney Winner For Godolphin
- Saturday, 30 August 2014 08:37
A colt with a rich pedigree and a big future has given Godolphin its first Saturday metropolitan winner in Sydney.
Sweynesse showed his class at his first start as a three-year-old to win over 1400m at Rosehill on Saturday and prompt thoughts of the feature races for his age group this spring.
A son of Lonhro from former French mare Swansea, Sweynesse ($12) took an inside run on the wet track to beat First Seal ($4.20) by three-quarters of a length with Hampton Court ($26) another 1-3/4 lengths third.
Sheikh Mohammed's Darley Australia was rebranded from the start of the new season to put it in line with the global Godolphin operation and Copy was trainer John O'Shea's first Sydney winner in the royal blue colours at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
Sweynesse is entered for the Caulfield Guineas and the Spring Champion Stakes as well as the Cox Plate.
"He has a nice horse's stamp about him," jockey Kerrin McEvoy said.
"He was meeting a classy field today and was pretty electric over the final furlong which is a good sign."
Godolphin representative Darren Beadman, who rode Lonhro to 10 of his 11 Group One wins, said he was enjoying working with the horse's progeny.
"They are chips off the old block," Beadman said.
First Seal's jockey Hugh Bowman was full of praise for the winner.
"I thought we had the race in our keeping so full credit to the winner," he said.
"I don't walk away disappointed. The other horse was just too good on the day."
Sweynesse won his only other start when he took out a Kembla Grange maiden in May to launch O'Shea's appointment as Sheikh Mohammed's Australian trainer.
