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Godolphin’s Best Solution sparks hope of a Caulfield Cup repeat

Sport360 staff

00:04 05/09/2018

It is 10 years since Saeed bin Suroor sent out Godolphin’s G1 Caulfield Cup winner All The Good, but the long-serving trainer believes he could have another to repeat that noteworthy achievement.

In winning the 146th running of the G1 Grosser Preis Von Baden at Iffezheim on Sunday, Best Solution displayed all the attributes required to win the famous 2,400m handicap, which in terms of tradition and prestige sits only behind the G1 Melbourne Cup in Australian racing.

Speed to take up a handy position, and the ability to hold it, are the essentials to win a Caulfield Cup, but so too is stamina to run the distance right out. Best Solution has shown he has all those factors going for him.

“Do I think he can win a Caulfield or Melbourne Cup? They are very tough races, I know that from experience,” Saeed said.

“Best Solution has won a G2 in the UK (Newmarket’s Princess Of Wales’s Stakes) and now two G1s in Germany. The best part of those wins is that he has improved a lot this year. He is in great form,” the trainer added.

A notable feature of Sunday’s win was that Best Solution began well enough to take up the ‘box seat,’ third on the inside rail — previously, he had been slow away and last early when winning a G1 at Hoppegarten.

He has made marked improvement since his three-year-old days when he managed a win in the Listed Lingfield Derby Trial finished eighth in the G1 Derby at Epsom.

Since returning to Newmarket from Al Quoz in Dubai, Best Solution has won all three of his starts and is clearly thriving. He is scheduled to start quarantine for Australia next week.

It is interesting that All The Good came to Caulfield off the back of a win in the Newburgh Handicap at Newbury, a race that was effectively a substitute for the 2008 Ebor, which had been abandoned because Knavesmire was unraceable that year.

The question now is whether Best Solution will have a prep race in Melbourne before the Caulfield Cup. “We’ll see whether he needs it,” Saeed said. “He runs well fresh, so it is not a priority,” he added.

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