Paulele a second Group 1 winner for Dawn Approach in Winterbottom Stakes success

Godolphin will consider it mission accomplished with consistent high-flyer Paulele, the sprinter notching his maiden Group 1 success in the Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, to further enhance his stud credentials.

Godolphin, who bypassed a throw at last month’s $15 million The Everest with Paulele in favour of an unsuccessful shot at the Manikato Stakes, had their dominance of spring spill over to WA’s The Pinnacles Carnival, as they claimed a remarkable seventh Group 1 success of a season that is merely four months in. The stable have claimed a remarkable 24 per cent of all Group 1 races this season.

With his victory Paulele became just the second elite-level winner for his former Darley sire Dawn Approach.

The stallion was prepared by renowned Irish trainer Jim Bolger to Group 1 wins in the 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, as well as two elite-level successes at two, with Dawn Approach winning the National Stakes at the Curragh and the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket. They followed juvenile success at Royal Ascot in the Coventry Stakes.

Dawn Approach shuttled to Darley Australia for four consecutive seasons between 2014 and 2018, with Paulele emanating from his penultimate southern hemisphere-bred crop, which yielded just 34 foals at a fee of $22,000 (inc GST).

The stallion’s other Group 1 winner is the Jim Bolger homebred Poetic Flare, who won the 2,000 Guineas in 2021. Dawn Approach, who has 17 individual stakes winners - six in Australia - now stands at Bolger’s Redmondstown Stud in Ireland, for a fee of €5,000 (approx. AU$7,714).

The race itself was a thriller, as Paulele rounded the field of 16 to soar from last to first to agonisingly deny Kissonallforcheeks and what would have been a second Winterbottom victory in three years for local trainer Daniel Morton. Rookie trainer Mitchell Pateman, chasing a fairytale first Group 1 victory, had to settle for third with This’ll Testya, who couldn’t quite contend with the blistering turn of foot from Paulele, trailing the winner by a length.

It was a spectacle that encapsulated the renewed fervour for racing in the West through the newly created Pinnacles Carnival, with the Winterbottom attracting a stellar cast following a prize-money injection to $1.5 million - enough to seduce the might of Godolphin, who were left reeling after the scratching of pre-race favourite Vilana on the eve of the race, only to land their first ever elite-level win in Western Australia through Paulele.

For Paulele, it was an eighth attempt at a Group 1 victory, with the four-year-old son of Dawn Approach having twice finished a narrow runner-up in such company during the winter Brisbane carnival earlier this year.

“It’s unreal. He’s finally gained the Group 1 that he’s deserved, and the way he did it was freakish,” said Godolphin’s travelling foreman Nacim Dilmi.

“He’s very good and the plan today was just to take him back, make sure he was relaxed and hopefully finish stronger than the rest. I was sweating at the top of the straight and it took him a little while to get there but, wow, I tell you what, that was a very good win.

“The guys had a lot of confidence in the horse and he’s been knocking on the door for a Group 1 for a long time. But I’m speechless.

“He’s really enjoyed it here. We’ve been taking him to the beach three times a week. He’s a bit of a buzzy horse, so we’ve tried to use the track as little as possible and try to keep him happy.

“On the way to the races today I said to James [Cummings], ‘this horse is ready to go’, he was really buzzed up today, in a good way.

“I’m sure one day he’ll join the stallion roster and hopefully he’ll be a very good stallion because he’s a very good-looking horse.”

Paulele was ridden by Ben Melham, who had to navigate a route from barrier 15 to send Paulele to glory, earning the rider his 18th Group 1 success in the saddle.

After winning the Schillaci Stakes at Caulfield on October 6 - a victory which saw the horse enter the conversation for the following week’s The Everest - Paulele disappointed in two runs at Group 1 level, finishing eighth in the Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley and a lowly 11th down the Flemington straight in the Champions Sprint. However, with the prospect of a wide barrier, trainer James Cummings made a key gear change to remove blinkers from the entire, with the horse having raced keenly up on the speed in those two Group 1 efforts.

“He’s a horse that’s always had Group 1 ability, but his first couple of runs were just fair on paper for his standards,” Melham said.

“They’ve had to travel him all the way to Perth, and he drew awkward. James and I spoke this morning and we were happy to ride him quiet. It was a nice speed and he got into a lovely rhythm and he was really effective to the line.

“In his races he’s been forward, but he’s been a little bit reluctant. The other day he was pulling with the blinkers on and just never comfortable up the straight. I was confident he would perform really well today and it’s good to be proven right.

“Kissonallfourcheeks gave me a lovely cart [into the race], and Chris Parnham, he rides a few winners around here, so I was happy to suck up on his back for as long as I could. I knew I was going to be strong right to the line because I’d had such an economical run.”

Paulele is the ninth named foal out of three-time Sydney metropolitan winner Chatoyant and a three-quarter brother to Group 3 winner Montsegur and a half-brother to Group 3 winner Tessera.

Chatoyant is herself a daughter of Decidity, who also produced Group 1 winner Bonaria and Group 3 winners Time Out and Legally Bay, the latter the dam of dual Group 1-winning colt and Coolmore sire Merchant Navy.

Chatoyant was retired from stud duty after the 2020 breeding season.

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