Class to trump Drago distance query: Robl

Wednesday 21 August 2013, 5:22pm

As a juvenile Drago showed untapped potential and underlined his credentials as a possible Victoria Derby contender.

On Saturday, the Anthony Cummings-trained colt will take the first step towards delivering on his promise when he resumes in the Group Three Up And Coming Stakes at Warwick Farm.

The 1300m journey is short of his best trip but regular jockey Peter Robl has no doubt the colt's class can override the distance negative.

"You've got to be mindful that he is first-up over 1300 metres but he is progressing nicely," Robl said.

"He is definitely a winning chance.

"He will improve with the run and he will appreciate further but he has the ability to win this race on Saturday."

Drago started four times as a two-year-old, finishing fourth in both the Group One ATC Sires' Produce and Champagne Stakes before scoring a resounding four-length victory over 1800m in May.

His victory came in the same race in which stablemate Fiveandahalfstar finished third a year earlier before returning in the spring to win the Victoria Derby.

Cummings has similar hopes for Drago and Robl has no doubts the three-year-old has the makings of a Group One galloper.

He also says Drago has made physical and mental improvement from the autumn.

"He has definitely come back a more mature horse," Robl said.

A field of 11 was accepted for the Up And Coming Stakes including the Gai Waterhouse-trained pair of Pitcrew and War and Champagne Stakes runner-up Fuerza.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »