With last seasons top two-year-olds rolled on a regular basis in the first few months of the new season, Group 1 ATC Sire’s Produce Stakes hero Anamoe put some sanity into proceedings with a triumphant return in Saturday’s $200,000 Group II Run For The Rose (1200m) at Kembla Grange.
With James McDonald in the saddle, the James Cummings-trained son of Street Boss (USA) battled past a stubborn In The Congo (Snitzel) by a neck with a further one and a quarter length back to the heavily supported Remarque (Snitzel) in third.
Winner of the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes at Sandown last November, Anamoe finished third in the Group 1 Blue Diamond stakes at Caulfield before heading north.
After winning the Group II Todman Stakes, the son of Street Boss (USA) rattled home to finish second in the Group 1 Golden Slipper before his romp in the ATC Sires’ Produce Stakes.
The Godolphin colour-bearer advances his record to four wins, two seconds and a third from eight starts with earnings of $1,848,425.
“He’s a supreme athlete, the onus is on us to try to get him back to the races and be in the same sort of winning form that he left off,” Cummings said.
“We felt like we rewarded him by putting him in the paddock on such a high.
“Champion two-year-olds like him need to come back and be going just as good with the goals that we’ve got. He’s just really pleased us in the last ten days.
“He has got his act together, and luckily, we were able to give him a good grounding this time in work, so even though we had that little setback, we were able to arrive here fit enough to be performing so strongly and reeling in a race fit horse like In The Congo.
“These are top-class colts. Every time these sorts of colts step out and run in races like these, they improve their value and their reputations as they should.
“He’s well and truly on his way. He had a pretty light preliminary in the last couple of weeks to be ready for this and what I like is that he doesn’t look like an absolutely natural 1200m horse.”
“We’re looking to go out in trip to seven (furlongs) and a mile. It was great that James was able to let the race unfold when there was speed up front, and the horse just gets mobile and gets into his gorgeous action. He savaged the line like a horse that is ready to go right on with it.”
A homebred for Godolphin, Anamoe is a half-brother to Irish stakes-winner Anamba and is the fourth winner from six to race out of the Group I SAJC Australasian Oaks winner Anamato.
A half-sister by champion sire Redoute’s Choice to Group I winner Drum, Anamato has a huge black type pedigree that features Group I winners Grand Armee, Yourdeel and Dealer Principal.
Anamato started her stud career in the Northern Hemisphere before being repatriated in 2014.
The daughter of Redoute’s Choice has a 3yo colt by Shooting to Win named Dartboard. After missing in 2019, Anamato was covered by Darley’s Blue Point (IRE) last spring.
After standing at Darley’s Victoria property for 11 seasons, Street Boss (USA) ventures to the Hunter Valley this season, where he commands a fee of $55,000.
