By Trevor Marshallsea
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Flying filly Tempted (Street Boss) showed her rare class with a dominant victory over a field of males in Saturday’s Run To The Rose (Gr 2, 1200m) at Rosehill, extending Godolphin’s extraordinary record in the race and also put herself in calculations for The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m).
Despite being the only female among the dozen three-year-olds competing, the Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) third placegetter was backed strongly from $5 into $3.90 favouritism and performed accordingly.
Jumping from gate five, Ethan Brown settled Tempted in midfield behind a group of five as second elect Raging Force (Cosmic Force) set a solid pace.
Godolphin’s second runner Beiwacht (Bivouac) made a concerted run to take the lead at the 200m, but Tempted swept home down the outside to beat the Chris Waller-trained colt by 1.55 lengths, with Skyhook (Written Tycoon) surging home for third.
Tempted may be prepared by Ciaron Maher these days after Godolphin’s switch to public trainers, but the song remained the same in terms of the royal blue army’s domination of the Run To The Rose.
Celebrating their quinella, Godolphin have now won the last five runnings of the race, and six of the past seven thanks to James Cummings-trained runners Bivouac (Exceed And Excel) in 2019, and Anamoe (Street Boss), In Secret (I Am Invincible), Cylinder (Exceed And Excel) and Traffic Warden (Street Boss) from 2021-24.
Bookmakers responded by making Tempted a $3.50 favourite for the main event – the Golden Rose (Gr 1, 1400m) on September 27 – which hasn’t been won by a filly since the outstanding Forensics (Flying Spur) in 2008 – the only filly to win it since 2001.
Tempted was also shortened into $15 for The Everest (Gr 1, 1200m) on October 18. In a market dominated by $1.70 shot Ka Ying Rising (Shamexpress), Tempted is Godolphin’s shortest-priced runner and could be set to fill their slot.
Maher noted three-year-olds had a strong record in the $20 million weight-for-age sprint, with two winners in its eight runnings, and with his own colt Growing Empire (Zoustar) running third last year.
Should Tempted line up in the Randwick feature, she would aim to become the second female winner of the race, with Maher’s former stable star Bella Nipotina having won the Group 1 last year.
And while conceding the two winners had been males in Yes Yes Yes (Rubick) and Giga Kick (Scissor Kick), Maher said Tempted had the quality to suggest she wouldn’t be out of place in the race.
“It probably wouldn’t be beyond her,” he told Sky Thoroughbred Central. “Three-year-olds have a good [Everest] record. I know the fillies probably haven’t done as well as the colts, but she might be one out of the box.
“It’s just great to be able to have those conversations. They [Godolphin] are a great team. I’ve only been dealing with them a short time, but they’ll make the right call.”
For the nearer term, a different chance at improving recent history seems likely to await with another crack at the three-year-old males in the Golden Rose, which – despite its reputation and importance as a stallion-maker – is still “only” worth $1 million in these times of dizzying NSW prize-money.
“I’ll have a chat to the team,” Maher said. “She could go a number of different ways, but given how she put them away today, it’d be very attractive.”
Maher said he’d been confident of Tempted’s chances in the Run To The Rose as she set out to follow a two-year-old season of three wins – two at Group 2 level – from six starts, plus her superb Slipper third and an unlucky seventh in the Blue Diamond Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m).
“She’s ultimately just very impressive,” Maher said of Tempted, who went into Saturday’s race off only one barrier trial.
“She was obviously a crack two-year-old, and she developed the right way with the Godolphin team.
“She’s a very, very high class filly.
“You can see she doesn’t carry a huge amount of weight. She couldn’t have been more impressive in her trial on a track that was rain affected at Randwick.
“You can see her coat’s just coming on. She’s a lovely filly and I’m thrilled.
“I said to Browny this morning when he was on the way to the races, ‘You enjoy this one old son’.”
Brown was equally dazzled with how Tempted scorched past the leaders on a track that had favoured front-runner on the inside.
“When I looked up at the top of the straight, knowing how the track was playing, I thought she’d have to be really good to pick these up – and she was.” Brown said. “She really impressed me.
“The race set up well for us, but the track has been quite on-speed, so all credit to her.”
Brown said Tempted had answered “the main question” of whether she would measure up to her juvenile season.
“Looking at her last trial you were always confident she was going to,” he said. “She’s done it on raceday now, so onwards and upwards for her.”
Tempted has enhanced a rich Godolphin/Darley family. She’s the fourth foal among five for Calliope (Exceed And Excel), who’s also the dam of quadruple stakes winning sprinter Kallos (Medaglia D’Oro).
Calliope herself was a dual black-type winner in a career cut short to just four outings, taking the Gimcrack Stakes (Listed, 1000m) and the Magic Night Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) in 2015-16.
Her latest foal, Zambales (Pinatubo) is a two-year-old in work with Anthony and Sam Freedman, while she was covered by Darley’s Anamoe (Street Boss) last spring.
Tempted became the second stakes winner of the new Australian season for Street Boss (Street Cry), and the 12th winner from 49 runners this term for the 22-year-old, who’s standing at Darley’s Northwood farm in Victoria this season for an unchanged $66,000 (inc GST).
Beiwacht performed strongly at $7.50 in his second run for Waller, continuing on from a first-up third in the San Domenico Stakes (Gr 3, 1100m).
Skyhook, at $5.50, finished well after being blocked for a run in the first half of the straight.
Wootton Bassett’s Group 1 placegetters Wodeton and State Visit made solid ground to run fourth and fifth, while Raging Force – chasing a fifth straight win after being a revelation of the winter – weakened into seventh.