Victorian raider Golden Path (NZ) (Belardo) has made it back-to-back victories in Sydney with a dominant victory in the Listed W J Mckell Cup (2000m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
The Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr-trained son of Belardo was stepping up a grade and handled the rise with ease.
Golden Path enjoyed a good run just behind the speed in fifth position throughout and was nursed around the home bend by jockey Chad Schofield. He then put his rivals to the sword to win by three and a half lengths from Touristic (Frankel), with Lord Ardmore (NZ) (Reliable Man) back in third.
The Kiwi private purchase is raced by a syndicate headed by prominent owner Carl Holt, who was on hand to see the four-year-old gelding salute.
“That was good,” Holt said. “The blinkers have made a big difference to him and the soft tracks he obviously likes and the team have done a great job with him.
“Chad has got a lot of confidence riding him and it all measured up today.
“That is the next level up for him – he has stepped up to a good level. He is getting his rating up so he can get into better races, so where to go next is a nice problem to have.”
It was the fourth victory from 11 career starts for Golden Path, who has now amassed A$364,750 in prizemoney.
“He is a good heavy track horse, a good 2000m horse,” winning trainer Mick Price said.
“He got washed out last week and I didn’t think the 35 days between runs would worry a horse like him.
“He has probably got to have the edge on him. He is a big rakish gelding and he was very well suited.”
By Belardo, who previously shuttled to Haunui Farm, Golden Path is out of the winning Dubai Destination mare Golden Destination.
Bred by the Wallace family’s Ardsley Stud, Golden Path was purchased for $35,000 from the 2021 Karaka Book 2 Yearling Sale by Pukekohe trainer Michael Rogers.
After winning two of his three trials in New Zealand for Rogers, Golden Path was sold to clients of the Price-Kent team.
