With Group 1 winner Astern leading the charge, Darley shuttler
The Chris Waller-trained Veladero had only broken his maiden two starts back at Hawkesbury then backed that up with a solid win at Warwick Farm on September 14.
He took a quantum leap on Saturday against a field of promising colts.
Allowed to stride forward by Rory Hutchings, Veladero looked likely to be swamped in the closing stages as the back markers chimed in.
With six horses spread across the track with less than a length separating them, Veladero stubbornly clung to a narrow lead to defeat Godolphin's Honeywine (Street Cry) with the James Cummings-trained Prized Icon (More Than Ready) earning third place in the stewards room at the expense of Retaliation (Bernardini), denying a 1-2-3 finish for Darley stallions. (photos Steve Hart)
Waller's stable representative Charlie Duckworth said the decision of Hutchings to roll forward was the winning of the race.
"It was a great ride, it didn't exactly go to plan, it wasn't the way he was told to ride it but he did a good job and he is only just a senior jockey but he played them well there," Duckworth said.
"Being a Rosehill boy he gallops around the track every week and he knows the horse well."
Duckworth was non-committal on whether the son of Medaglia D'oro will push on to the Group I Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) at Randwick in a fortnight.
"I am not going to give anything away (on a Spring Champion Stakes start) but of course there are the options of doing it but you have to take everything as it comes and see how he comes out of this."
Bred by Gerry Harvey, Veladero was a $160,000 purchase by Star Thoroughbreds from the Baramul Stud draft at the 2015 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling sale.
He is the fourth foal of the 4-time Sydney winner Stacked (Belong To Me), whose dam Western Invasion (Best Western) is a half-sister to Group II Sunline Stakes winner Flushed out of the Listed Fernhill Handicap winner and Group 1 South Australian Oaks runner-up Come On Lady (Comeran).
Stacked has a 2yo filly by Smart Missile and a yearling colt by All Too Hard. She was bred back to All Too Hard last spring but missed.
Veladero becomes the 93rd stakes winner for Medaglia d'Oro (USA) who stands at Kelvinside for a fee of $110,000 inc GST.
