Avilius Too Good Again in Premier’s Cup
Avilius will take his position in the 2018 Melbourne Cup for James Cummings. Photo: Steve Hart

Avilius Too Good Again in Premier’s Cup

Godolphin import Avilius has made it two from two in Australia by storming home to win the Group 3 Premier’s Cup (1900m) at Rosehill Gardens this afternoon.

The Pivotal gelding announced himself as a horse to follow by producing a smart turn of foot to win over a mile at Randwick first-up and always appeared as though he’d improve upon getting out in trip second-up.

Jumping from the barriers fairly, jockey Glyn Schofield settled the horse off the pace and allowed the likes of Dark Eyes, Mighty Lucky and I Am Serious to dictate early terms.

Faced with a wall of horses and forced wide when the field turned for home, the four-year-old appeared as though he was not going to get the right run, but he produced a huge turn of foot when it did arrive 200m from home and went about chasing down runaway leader I Am Serious; finally catching and passing the horse in the last 100m.

James Cummings has been pleased with everything that the horse has done since arriving in Australia and outlined some potentially lofty staying targets for Avilius this time.

“He is an exciting horse and he really had to step up to run the 1900m out strongly, particularly on that soft track today,” Cummings said.

“I think he was a weapon once he got him out and he hit the line strongly, so I think he’s certainly one to keep following.

“He’s a really laid-back horse, but he was classy as soon as he arrived at Osborne Park. Of our imported horses, he just really looked the part. He’s got great form, he’s on multiple occasions placed in Group 2 races in France and he’s just adapted beautifully and is a happy horse in training.

“The horse knows where the winning line is and he just looks in great skin at the moment. He’s just a great horse to be taking forward and whether we go to the Kingston Town or the Newcastle Cup next, we’ll just wait and see how quickly he recovers and how far he wants to go next.

“He’s certainly impressed me. We’ll nominate for the Metropolitan on Monday-week, but I reckon he might be worth dominating for the Caulfield Cup on Thursday too. We’ll keep poking along with him and not get too carried away, but I wouldn’t be limiting how far he could get this time.”

Avilius is available at early 2018 Caulfield Cup odds of $17 here at Neds.