Cafe Millenium makes emphatic statement on debut

[Wandering Eyes]

Cafe Millenium under Tom Marquand impressed on debut at Randwick. Photo: Steve Hart

From last around the turn, to first crossing the winning post.

Cafe Millenium has produced an electrifying effort on debut to storm clear in the two-year-old Pierro Plate at Randwick on Saturday afternoon.

The colt out of Not A Single Doubt trained by John O’Shea made a statement for his Golden Slipper aspirations in a dominant victory, beating home a very well fancied Don Corleone (-200) in the process.

The market didn’t want to be with Cafe Millenium being a big drifter, going from +800 out to a starting price of +1400 with online bookmakers.

To be fair, you wouldn’t have wanted to be on him from the jump, after missing the start significantly, as did short-priced favourite – Don Corleone – and was forced to sit at the rear of the field throughout the 1100m contest.

It was Chevron who jumped best getting across from the wide draw to lead at what looked moderate tempo throughout, with the Godolphin runner Remedies getting the perfect run in behind the speed.

James McDonald looked to cut the corner turning for home and looked the winner at some stage before being one-paced with 200m to go. Empress Of Wonder ran on well into third; however, it was all about the winner – Cafe Millenium – who produced a scintillating finish to put the race to bed from last.

2023 Pierro Plate Replay – Cafe Millenium

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Trainer John O’Shea spoke post-race about his progressive colt and just how good his win was on debut.

“We’ve always thought very highly of him,” said O’Shea.

“And as you can see, he’s still a work in progress you know. He didn’t execute that well the first part of the race to be fair. He did get chopped out coming out of the gates, but he didn’t execute how we would’ve liked.”

“We always knew he had the capacity to do what he did in the final part of the race but he really needs to learn his craft.”

“He’s a big horse and that’s why we were keen to bring him to Randwick – we trialled him in the spring and then just put him away with the intention of coming here for the autumn and see what he had to offer. You’d have to be impressed with what you saw there.”

“Aussie” Tom Marquand took the reins on Saturday and gave a lovely endorsement of the colt he had underneath him.

“To be honest it probably felt as good as it looked,” said Marquand.

“That was a really impressive performance and I got the chance to sit on him the other day and it was evident he was a lovely horse.”

“It confirmed what John always thought of him by the sounds of it.”

Prior to that debut performance you could’ve had +10000 for Cafe Millenium in the Golden Slipper; however, after that, online betting sites have marked him an +1000 chance.

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