Four-year-old gelding Codigo notched a hard-fought victory in the Glorious Goodwood Handicap (1100m) at Flemington on Saturday for trainers Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman.
Ridden by Blake Shinn, Codigo narrowly defeated La Defense and Shirshov as the son of Ardrossan made it back-to-back metropolitan victories in a new campaign.
Codigo started his career with trainer Stephen Marsh in New Zealand, where he was the first winner for his sire Ardrossan when successful on debut, before becoming the Waikato Stud stallion’s first stakes winner when landing the Listed Wellesly Stakes (1100m) at start two.
Marsh opted for a hit-and-run raid across the Tasman with the promising galloper who placed in a Listed race at Flemington behind Steparty as a juvenile.
Following an unplaced two-start spring campaign as a three-year-old, Codigo transferred to the Moody and Coleman stable, where he took a while to find his groove.
“He just took a little while to acclimatise. Whether we rushed him a little bit in his first Australian preparation, hindsight is a wonderful thing, but he’s had a good break since then and this preparation he’s just come back a different horse,” Coleman said.
“He looks really furnished, his coat’s been immaculate, and he’s just improved with racing.
“He’s done that in really nice style and it was a tough win in the end.”
Winning jockey Blake Shinn said Codigo fought hard to get past the second horse in the on-pace dominated contest.
“He just presented really well. He was off the back of a nice first-up win at Sandown, the race set up today on-pace and he had all favours but I loved his determination late. He changed legs inside the 100m and I think that helped him get over the line and find that extra gear. It was a good effort,” Shinn said.
Codigo sports the colours of Waikato Stud, who bred the talented sprinter in conjunction with Dame Lowell Goddard.
The attractive bay is out of the winning Per Incanto mare Sophia Magia.
