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Cascadian produces classy display to land Doncaster
British-bred Cascadian (6 g ex Falls of Lora by Street Cry) capped off a phenomenal day for trainer James Cummings and Godolphin when he produced a thrilling display to win the Doncaster Mile (Gr 1, 1600m) at Randwick and in doing so became the second Group 1 winner for former Darley shuttler New Approach (Galileo) in Australia and ninth overall.
Ridden by Jamie Kah, Cascadian settled down in the second half of the 19-runner field and began weaving a path at the 400 metre mark.
When a gap came with 200 metres left to run, Kah asked the gelding to go through it and he responded impressively, sweeping to the front to come out on top of a close finish, beating Icebath (Sacred Falls) by a head. Dalasan (Dalakhani) was another three-quarters of a length away in third.
Last seen running fourth in the George Ryder Stakes (Gr 1, 1500m) on March 27, the six-year-old gelding started his career in France with Andre Fabre, for whom he won three races and also finished second in the Prix Jean Prat (Gr 1, 1600m) in 2018. Prior to his victory in Saturday's Group 1, his biggest victory in Australia came when he landed last season's Doncaster Prelude (Gr 3, 1500m).
The gelding's record now stands at five wins from 24 starts and he has earned $1,050,322 in career prize-money.
The win was Kah's first Group 1 triumph in Sydney and her fourth overall and Cummings said he was keen to book the jockey given his lightweight of 53kg in Saturday's Group 1.
"She's rating right up on the figures as James McDonald is rating in Sydney," Cummings said. "We were very, very keen to try and book her for a lightweight ride in the Doncaster and we had a few circling.
"Once Cascadian came through the George Ryder with such a brilliant fourth and we got the opportunity to drop back in weight, Jamie's team were very happy to ride him.
"It didn't rely on me to make much of a point to her, she was very keen to be on him and she had the right plan.
"She thought about the race exactly the way we did and that's put us in the frame."
Cummings was quick to heap praise on his team following the Group 1 victory.
"The team has done a magnificent job to get this horse nice and lean," said Cummings. "To Liam O'Rourke and to all the guys, really behind the scenes, in what is a magnificent blue army on days like this we've got to be so grateful. When horses can come off the plane of his calibre we know that we're cooking with gas.
"While he hasn't won a heap of races since he's been here, we've worked out a few things with him, we just mucked around with him a bit this preparation. 12 months ago he was winning a Doncaster Prelude and now he's got up and won the Doncaster. I'm really lost for words how remarkable it is to have this horse to finally get up and win one of these big grand finals."
The gelding is one of three winners out of 2012 UAE Oaks (Gr 3, 1900m) winner Falls Of Lora (Street Cry) and she is herself a daughter of Listed winner and Group 1-placed Firth Of Lorne (Danehill).
Firth Of Lorne is also the dam of Group 2 winner Master Of The Seas (Dubawi) and Listed-winning pair Latharnach (Iffraaj) and Etive (Elusive Quality).
Further back Cascadian's third dam is Group 3 scorer Kerrera (Diesis) and she is the grandam of dual Group 2 scorer Dupont (Zafonic), fellow Group 2 winner Pacino (Zafonic) and Listed scorer Zachariah (Zafonic).
New Approach shuttled to Australia for four seasons and Cascadian joins 2014 Schweppes Oaks (registered as the Australasian Oaks) (Gr 1, 2000m) winner May's Dream as his other Australian Group 1 winner. He is standing at Dalham Hall for a private fee.
