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By Ray Hickson

James Cummings has put forward the challenge to star apprentice Zac Lloyd to choose his own adventure and make Saturday’s $10 million James Squire Golden Eagle (1500m) at Rosehill his own.

Godolphin trainer James Cummings (Pic: Bradley Photos).

The Godolphin trainer regards the four-year-old’s gallant front-running third in the TAB Epsom as his premier performance to date, jumping off a wide gate, and feels he may have to attempt a repeat.

Golden Mile is the rougher of the Godolphin duo, at $26 with TAB on Thursday, with Pericles more fancied ($11) from barrier one, but Cummings said on SEN there’s a scenario for Lloyd to take control from barrier 18.

“It’s amazing that there might not be too much pace in a race with 20 runners,’’ he said.

“The horse is a sharp miler who can begin well and put himself in a position.

“He did settle six lengths off the lead in a Caulfield Guineas, so Zac Lloyd is going to have to make his mind up from the draw.

“I can see him being not too far away, but it will entirely depend on how he begins.

“With the weight he carried in the Epsom, I thought his run was very solid. A career PB and he did it from in front, which was completely foreign to him at the time.”

The entire has had a mixed career since he won that Guineas last spring.

He didn’t really fire after a promising start to his autumn and this spring he had to claw his way back from a flattening in the Missile Stakes first-up and being a little plain in the Winx Stakes.

But he bounced back with a game win in the Group 2 Theo Marks prior to his Epsom placing which earned him a start in the Group 1 $5m King Charles III Stakes on Everest Day.

“That has more than justified the horse’s position of running a big race in the Golden Eagle,’’ Cummings said.

“He just got involved in a speed battle in the King Charles, which was not ideal.

“I think he could have finished closer had that not unfolded.

“If we go back three ago to his run in the Theo Marks, it was the Golden Mile we’ve been expecting all preparation.

“He gets back to Rosehill for the first time since that race, so there’s something to be said for this horse being ready to run another peak performance in the Golden Eagle this weekend.”

Pericles, to be partnered by Ben Melham, has had his ups and downs this spring as he looked likely to start Epsom favourite on the back of two strong wins to start the campaign but was forced to miss that race.

Cummings said it wasn’t ideal to come back to the 1300m in the Silver Eagle and feels he will take improvement from his performance to hold third placing.

“I thought his run was excellent up on top of the speed, still fighting on at the finish,’’ he said.

“Obviously not his best run for the prep, but I did admire the way the horse went about things in the Tramway.

“He showed he still had the versatility to do it from the front.

“From that barrier, he can get run-of-the-race stuff and be produced at the right time. There’s a bit of confidence about the way Pericles is going."

The barrier draw has swayed Cummings into nominating Pericles as his leading contender to land a second Golden Eagle, following Colette in 2020, for Godolphin but says there’s not a lot between them on the training track.

Golden Mile runs third in the Epsom

James Cummings on Cascadian (race 7): “He’s first-up against these horses, who’ve had very solid and impressive sprinting campaigns coming through all the right races. Feet on the ground about his prospects of beating them home here, but we’d love to see Cascadian flash up and run a race. It might be the case that he has only the one run in the spring and then we put him away for the autumn. We like the way he’s built up for this race.”

On Zapateo (race 7): “She looks like getting a gun run here and there’s a bit of rain forecast for Rosehill, which should suit Zapateo down to the ground. She will relish getting a nice, cushy run here with not so much pace predicted in this race. Surely there should be some pressure at the right time and she should enjoy an economical run and be ready to produce a good turn of foot at the finish.”

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday’s Golden Eagle meeting at Rosehill Gardens