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By Ray Hickson

Godolphin colt Tarpaulin has already been exposed to some of the top youngsters of his generation in his only race start so it’d be no surprise to see him waste no time dispensing with his maiden status after a rousing trial at Warwick Farm on Monday.

Perhaps things happened a bit too quickly back in the summer for the half-brother to Aft Cabin, he debuted five days after his first trial and ran fourth behind Straight Charge and Erno’s Cube in a particularly strong two-year-old race run at Randwick in late December.

Straight Charge would win the Group 2 Silver Slipper at his next start and ran sixth in the Golden Slipper while Erno’s Cube won the Group 2 Reisling Stakes and finished third in the Group 2 Percy Sykes at The Championships.

Tarpaulin has now had two trials in his second campaign and while it was only a 786m trial you couldn’t help but keep your eye on him as he cruised down the outside late.

James McDonald settled the colt three and four wide in a midfield spot before deliberately swinging wider on the turn, he looked to be under quite a grip as he just failed to pick up Party Prophet.

It’s worth noting the filly following Tarpaulin home in that trial, her name is Sensational Wind and it was the first trial from this very well bred filly in the Ciaron Maher yard.

She’s by I Am Invincible from Gust Of Wind, of course the last horse to defeat Winx, and was a $1.1 million purchase at Easter last year.

Axius wins a trial at Warwick Farm on June 17

Given it was her first public hitout it is a promising sign that she could take a bit of ground of a more experienced horse and it’ll be interesting to see how she progresses.

Still on James Cummings and Godolphin, and Photograph appears to have come back in good order though her time in winning a heat over the same trip was slower by some two lengths compared to her stablemate.

She also made her run wide on the track with McDonald keeping her well clear of her rivals so the margin is probably a little flattering to those behind.

From two starts in the late summer she recorded fourth placings at Canterbury and Newcastle, imagine she’ll land in a maiden somewhere and be hard to beat.

Axius, from the Maher stable, is likely going to start a short priced favourite when he makes his debut after a dominant showing to score in his 789m heat.

Tommy Berry sat him handy and the Justify colt, who cost $200,000 as a yearling, bounded clear when asked to extend early in the straight. He trialled back in February and clearly that extra time has served him well.

Out of the other two-year-old trial, won by Hampden Bridge, a Yulong filly with Annabel Neasham called Certain Future may be a horse to keep an eye on.

It was her first trial and after settling near the tail she picked up some nice ground to run fourth without the button being pushed.

Joe Pride has an interesting former Kiwi in his stable called Aberlour who scored an easy win in the 1200m heat opening the session.

She’s won three from six including two Listed races at 1335m and 1600m and this trial was her second for the Pride yard and she definitely appreciated the extra ground on her first appearance.

The other horse to mention out of the session is Contemporary who had a tickover trial having not racing since winning at the Hawkesbury Cup meeting nearly seven weeks ago.

His best work was the last 50m as he claimed third in the fastest of the two open trials over 789m.

All the results and replays from Monday's Warwick Farm trials