Viridine sounds Coolmore warning with effortless Roman Consul win

Tom Walter - Saturday October 7

Trainer James Cummings has his first genuine stallion prospect for Godolphin with Saturday's Group II Roman Consul (1200m) winner Viridine.

Godolphin's Viridine surges to victory for Brenton Avdulla. Photo: Steve Hart

Despite pulling in a walkathon during the early stages, Viridine ($2.25 fav) displayed a sharp turn of foot for Brenton Avdulla along the rails to register his fourth win from four starts.

"Enormous run. I've never had a horse pull so hard and keep going," Avdulla said.

"They went very steady on speed and he didn't give himself much of a breather, I didn't get much of a breather riding him.

"He wasn't into a rhythm at the top of the straight and when it was time to go, as soon as I gave him a one, two he was off and gone."

The logical progression for the son of Poet's Voice is the stallion-making Group I Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on November 4 but whether the colt has another run beforehand remains undecided.

"The Coolmore is a month away and I'd imagine that anyone looking at that would agree that he's a pretty exciting prospect," Cummings said.

"We'll have to decide on how we get there but he's such a fast colt. I watched him work on Tuesday at Osborne Park and in three months of training there I haven't seen a horse work better than that – I was fearing that he almost worked too good to win.

"I dare say there's more improvement there."

The Gary Portelli-trained Single Bullet ($5.50) was two lengths astern of Viridine on the line while Godolphin's other runner Beau Geste ($4.80) finished a further neck back in third.

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