James Cummings will give brilliant Randwick winner Tarpaulin an opportunity to chime into the early carnival races, nominating a Golden Rose lead-up as the colt’s immediate target.
Starting a $1.80 betting app favourite, the youngster demolished his rivals in Saturday’s Ranvet Handicap (1100m), cruising to the front at the top of the straight and zipping clear to defeat Sakima ($6) by 2-1/2 lengths with early leader Ride The River ($20) best of the rest, another 6-1/4 lengths away third.
The performance followed Tarpaulin’s impressive maiden victory in midweek grade earlier this month and Cummings said the timing was right to test him in better company.
“He is exciting. He cruised up to them with such an effortless stride,” Cummings said.
“That is a good progression from putting away a handy maiden field and I liked the win of the runner-up Sakima ten days ago when she was excellent.
“To put the margin on that field today, I think that bodes well for his prospects in a race like the Rosebud. Hopefully he doesn’t go up too much in weight for the sake of the win.”
The Listed Rosebud (1100m) is on August 17 and is one of the early lead-ups to the Group 1 Golden Rose (1400m) on September 28.
While Tarpaulin will need to raise the bar again to be competitive at black-type level, winning jockey James Mcdonald has no doubts he has the attributes to make a successful transition.
“He’s got a lethal turn of foot,” McDonald said.
“He really moves through the ground and he’s got a killer will to win, so he is up at the right time.
“He is a bit better than this and he will measure up in whatever he runs in.”
Tarpaulin is by Darley stallion Harry Angel, who is also the sire of Godolphin’s Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes winner Tom Kitten.
Cummings is a fan of the breed and is adamant the young sire can continue to make his mark through the likes of Tarpaulin.
“One thing I will say about the Harry Angels, for the mares he has had so far he is doing a very good job,” Cummings said.
“He is yet another promising colt that he has got out and about and it’s exciting for the team.”
