Irish-bred import Amade did nothing to diminish his patient connections’ hopes he can still make it to a Melbourne Cup, finishing fourth in his much-anticipated return to the races in Saturday’s Easter Cup (2000m) at Caulfield.
It was the OTI-owned gelding’s first start in 22-months, having not raced since winning the Group 2 Belmont Gold Cup in New York in June 2019 when under the care of French trainer Alessandro Botti.
Connections had hoped the now seven-year-old would go on to contest the 2019 Melbourne Cup, following in the footsteps of fellow Belmont Gold Cup winner Red Cardinal.
But injuries had since hindered the son of Casamento, suffering a tendon issue and then a pelvis injury.
Having now made a full recovery and joined trainer Phillip Stokes’ Pakenham yard earlier this year connections are once again daring to dream the international galloper will finally get his chance in the Melbourne Cup.
The well-travelled gelding has performed well across France, England, the United States and now Australia having won eight of his 14 starts.
Stokes is confident the stayer’s Easter Cup performance to finish less than two lengths first-up off the winner Hang Man over just 2000m shows he’s a horse they can look to target at the big races especially in the spring.
“Amade I thought was huge, probably better than expected,” he said on RSN’s Correct Weight program on Sunday.
“We thought he definitely needed the run after two years. He’s had a good grounding coming into this after a number of jumpouts and trials so we just thought that we needed to get him racing now.
“Really pleased with what I saw from him in the Easter Cup, we’ll look to run him over a bit further now probably at Flemington.
“Just give him a light campaign this time round and I think next prep he might be a horse that we could even nominate and look towards the Melbourne Cup.”
CREDIT: Kate Watts – Racing.com
