Godolphin’s top-quality Exceed And Excel colt Cylinder pulled it out of the fire in Saturday’s Group II James Squire Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill.
The favourite looked in trouble when Nash Rawiller was searching for clear air with 200m to run. After threading the needle, Cylinder set out after the gallant frontrunner Moravia (Snitzel) to secure a well-earned long-head triumph.
The Xtravagant colt Nadal put the writing on the wall when charging home to finish a short-neck back in third.
Runner-up in the Golden Slipper, Cylinder advances his record to four wins and three seconds from eight starts.
Trainer James Cummings said the handsome colt would chase Group 1 glory next in the Golden Rose.
“He’s a crack colt. He was our best two-year-old last season and it’s great for the stable he’s now come back and he’s two out of two,” Cummings said.
“He’s out of a Street Cry mare and he’s a good racehorse and that can take him a long way.”
“He’s got up and claimed The Run To The Rose a fortnight out from the Golden Rose, and what a great energy-saving run he had, but he really had to knuckle down and sprint quickly when the gap (came). I don’t even think it was a gap, it might have been half a gap. He’s been able to get up and beat a very promising young horse who was great in the San Domenico, Moravia.
“He really had to knuckle down, he had no time at all to float around and think about anything. I like the way the horse switched off and all of a sudden there were, three, four horses ahead of him in the run and he wasn’t getting the commentary about the cheap lead or the map favours that he might have gotten after the draws came out during the week after acceptances.
“He just zapped along like a very good colt and he’s setting himself up very well for the early part of the spring.”
“I think the Golden Rose looks very nice for the horse. He will have to stretch to seven (furlongs) but two runs under the belt, he can certainly do that.
“We should have our options open for all races. Perhaps it was the run of a horse who shouldn’t have won today and yet he managed to find a way to do it and that’s the mark of an exceptional horse.
“He was big first-up and now he’s had another good lung burner there so he should be ready to go in a fortnight’s time.”
A half-brother to dual Group III winner Parisal, Cylinder is one of three winners from as many to race for the Group III winning Street Cry (IRE) mare Circular who won won five and placed in eight of her 20 starts.
Her highlight in the Listed Matron Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley under Joao Moreira.
Circular’s dam Hexameter (Octagonal) is a Sydney-winning three-quarter sister to Lonhro, Niello, and Shannara.
Circular has a yearling three-quarter sister to Cylinder by Bivouac and was covered by Brazen Beau last spring.
