Latest News

By Ray Hickson

He’s trained an Everest winning sprinter and a host of Group 1 winners but Joe Pride feels Ceolwulf could be the horse he’s been waiting for.

Trainer Joe Pride (Pic: Bradley Photos)

Arguably the most exciting horse in Australia, the four-year-old took leaps last spring that blew Pride away as he started out the winner of one race, and was beaten in an open handicap fresh, and ended it a dual Group 1 winner.

Ceolwulf kicks off a preparation in the Group 2 $300,000 Petaluma Apollo Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on Saturday that the Warwick Farm trainer always felt would be the one that saw him come of age.

So it’s an ominous sign, and one that shoots the occasional nerve through Pride’s body, that he’s six months ahead of schedule.

“I’m trying to play it down in my own mind,’’ Pride said.

“I’ve been doing it for 25 years or close to it so if you can’t enjoy a horse like this you’ll never enjoy any horse. I’m excited but there are a few nerves bubbling away.

“He’s bred to get better as he gets older and I’m hoping that’s exactly what he’ll do.

“It was his first preparation as a gelding (in the spring) so he started off a bit bubbly and was doing colt things but by the end of it he’d got the hang of it.

“I would have signed off on a couple of Listed races. To win two Group 1s at the end of the prep, it’s not that I didn’t think he was a Group 1 horse but I thought it might come this autumn and next spring.

“I think we should see the best of him this prep. He’s on an amazing trajectory so let’s hope he can keep going up but there’s good reason to believe he will.”

The Epsom Handicap and King Charles III Stakes winner is being aimed at completing the ‘royal double’ in the Group 1 $5m Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2000m) in April.

In the Apollo he’ll have the first of what will likely be up to four clashes with Via Sistina, the nation’s highest rated horse, but while Pride will happily take a first-up win he doesn't have one pencilled in.

That’s largely based on Ceolwulf’s history, though it only includes one preparation as a gelding, but there have been signs in his trials that he’s there to run very well fresh.

He found himself in front when beating Via Sistina and Fangirl in a 1000m trial at Warwick Farm on January 30 though Pride warned no emphasis should be put on the fact he led that gallop.

“To be fair, first-up he’s had four starts and run one placing so we don’t see the best of this horse first-up,’’ he said.

“Those things generally don’t change, if they’re not good first-up horse that stays with them.

“I still expect him to run well but I don’t want to put too much pressure on him, he could easily run a nice third or fourth and build on that.

“The obvious thing that everybody has seen is him trial sharply which is always a good sign.

“Going back to previous preparations he would have been at the back of that field and running on.

“They didn’t run much time, you’ve got to put it in perspective, but it was a good run and that was the horse just showing us where he’s at.

“We’ve seen him build up significantly physically, relax more in and around his work, and his demeanour around the stable is a calm and relaxed horse who has more of an awareness of what he’s here for.”

Jockey Chad Schofield echoed Pride’s sentiments about how well Ceolwulf, $3.90 with TAB on Thursday, has returned.

Ceolwulf wins a Warwick Farm trial on January 30

“He’s feeling tremendous, he definitely feels stronger and bigger,’’ he said.

“I loved how he bounced and relaxed out in front. He’s a horse that improves with racing so as excited as we are to get him back to the track we know he’s only going to get better as he races on.

“He’s stamped himself now as one of the best horses in the country and it’s exciting for me to be part of his journey.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Randwick meeting