Champion jockey James McDonald just knew that when a gap opened up for Cascadian 300m out in the Craven Plate at Randwick, he was always going to take advantage of it.
That is because the eight-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down, winning by 1.5-lengths and backing up beautifully from his comfortable Hill Stakes victory on October 1.
2022 Craven Plate Replay
Again, Cascadian had way too much class on Saturday after he was third-last before the turn.
“He’s a beauty. He gives you so much confidence when you’re out there, even though he’s back in the field,” McDonald told Sky Racing.
“You just know he’s going to come with a great turn of foot and whether he gets a gap this big, or that big he’s always going to be there to explode.
“Obviously, he was very well placed and pretty much was always going to win that race.
“It was just a matter of timing the run and he’s just in a rich vein of form.”
James Cummings’ assistant, Darren Beadman, said it was almost like a trackwork run the way Cascadian finished with such class.
“He’s just in a purple patch at present. He came out here to Australia in 2019, His Highness sent him out to us,” he said.
“He was placed in a Group 1 over there. He’s just got better with age and to back-up like he did today, back to an 1800m which is probably an ideal distance for him, it was like he just had another burn around Osborne Park.
“He’s probably going to go to Flemington over the carnival down there. There’s a mile race at Flemington over Cup week, so he’s in a rich vein of form.”
Cascadian is now a $6 chance with online bookmakers in the Group 1 Champions Mile at Flemington on November 5.
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