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Eduardo routs his rivals in The Galaxy
Host (Hussonet), who stood at Swettenham and then Willow Grove Stud, was handed his first Group 1 winner on Saturday when the Joe Pride-trained Eduardo (7 g ex Blushing by Fantastic Light) trounced his rivals when shouldering top-weight of 57kgs in The Galaxy (Gr 1, 1100m) at Rosehill.
A last start winner of the Challenge Stakes (Gr 2, 1000m) in which he narrowly beat multiple Group 1 winner Nature Strip (Nicconi), Eduardo was sent straight to the front and showed an impressive turn of foot to surge clear of his rivals to post an impressive three and a half length victory over Order Of Command (Squamosa), while Jonker (Spirit Of Boom) was another two and a half lengths away in third.
Pride said he was confident the gelding could win today, especially given his last start performance in the Challenge Stakes.
"I brought him here today and wondered what could go wrong because you know you've got the horse on song," Pride said.
"But there's the variables of the weight and the way the track was playing.
"What I like about Nash [Rawiller], I just said to Nash 'I'm not going to tell you what to do mate' and he was confident he said 'I'll find the fence and I'll just take care of it'.
"He was confident, he knew what he needed to do and he did it."
Pride said Eduardo would return to Randwick for the T J Smith (Gr 1, 1200m) on April 10.
"The horse is a very good horse," Pride said.
"He's made a statement today, he made it the other day actually, but it was a statement not taken up by all.
"Wow, that was an amazing win and there's better ahead of this horse, there's no doubt about that."
The gelding is one of three winners out of the unraced Fantastic Light (Rahy) mare Blushing and she herself is a daughter of Lavina Bay (Dehere), who is in turn out of Group 3 scorer Peggy Ann (Bletchingly).
Peggy Ann is out of Group 1 winner Avon Angel (Avon Valley) and she is the grandam of Macau Listed winner Best Of Luck (Thorn Park).
Host is the sire 152 winners, headed by six stakes winners and he died in January last year.