Godolphin have had an embarrassment of riches in the three year-old division in Australia this season, but one of the five G1 winning colts that have won this season in the Godolphin blue will be returning in the spring as a gelding.
Godolphin have enjoyed G1 success with brilliant filly Tempted (ATC Surround Stakes) along with the following colts Beiwacht (ATC Golden Rose, ATC All Aged Stakes), Observer (VRC Victoria Derby, VRC Australian Guineas), Tentyris (VRC Coolmore Stud Stakes, VRC Lightning Stakes), Green Spaces (ATC Australian Derby) and Attica (ATC Spring Champion Stakes).
By champion sire Lonhro from multiple Group winning mare Savatiano, Attica was sent to Joe Pride unraced and made an immediate impression last spring.
He won a maiden on debut and then at his fourth start he captured the Group I ATC Spring Champion Stakes, but his form this autumn has been a bit below par albeit he was racing in the highest grade and did come away with a third in the Group I ATC Randwick Guineas to superstars Sheza Alibi and Autumn Boy.
Speaking on Sky Racing’s Racing HQ last Saturday morning ahead of the races, his trainer Joe Pride revealed the decision to geld and how excited he would be to have Attica back in his care as a gelding.
He felt as a colt Attica was not racing genuinely and had become difficult to train, so given his obvious racing ability the only way of bringing that to fruition would be to geld him, a tough decision for Godolphin given there is the real possibility Attica may be the last ever G1 winning son of Lonhro, who died in April of 2024.
There is an extremely successful precedent for the move as in 2023 the Chris Waller trained Lonhro colt Lindermann won the Group I ATC Rosehill Guineas, but a subsequent loss of form the following spring also saw him gelded.
Since being gelded, Lindermann has won $4.4million in prizemoney and has become one of the best WFA 1600 to 2000m horses in Sydney.
Godolphin took a similar approach to Tom Kitten, who won the 2023 Group I ATC Spring Champion Stakes and then lost form in the autumn. He has subsequently won a pair of Group I VRC All Star Miles and has banked nearly $6million since being gelded.
Stay tuned for the next chapter in the life of Attica!
