Cafe races into Slipper contention

On a day the Inglis Millennium was expected to shift the Golden Slipper market, it was the oddly spelt Cafe Millenium who stormed into Slipper contention with an impressive last-to-first debut victory in Saturday’s $150,000 Pierro Plate (1100m).

Pre-post Golden Slipper second favourite Don Corleone ($1.60 favourite) was mobbed at the start, sandwiched between Empress of Wonder ($7) and Cafe Millenium ($15) as Empress of Wonder jumped outwards at the start.

Don Corleone was squeezed out of finding a spot in the front-end of the field, James McDonald positioning last month’s Randwick debut winner midfield on the fence.

McDonald found space in the home straight for Don Corleone to make his bid for victory but had little to offer with the wind knocked out of his sails early.

The John O’Shea-trained Cafe Millenium was able to overcome being inconvenienced in the first few strides to swoop widest of all under Tom Marquand and win by 1.25 lengths.

Godolphin filly Remedies ($10) was runner-up with Empress of Wonder a further half neck away. Don Corleone finished fourth, beaten just under three lengths from the winner.

“As you can see, he is a work in progress, he didn’t execute it well the first part of the race but, to be fair, he did get chopped out coming out of the gates,” O’Shea told SKY Thoroughbred Central.

“We thought he’d be a little bit closer in the run, but 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, 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 in the autumn and seeing what he had to offer. You’d have to be impressed with what you saw there.”

Cafe Millenium, a two-year-old Not A Single Doubt colt, is out of High Chaparral mare Veloce Forte, a half-sister to Group 2 winner Gypsy Diamond, also trained by O’Shea.

“It probably felt as good as it looked, it was a really impressive performance,” Marquand said.

“I had a chance to sit on him the other day and it was evident that he was a lovely horse, but he probably just didn’t know how to flatten out.

“A couple of flicks behind the saddle and he was off and away. To be honest, I wasn’t expecting him to be that electric to the line. He’s a lovely horse going forward with a lot to learn.”

Sportsbet slashed Cafe Millenium’s odds for the $5m Golden Slipper (1200m) at Rosehill on March 18 to $10, placing him on the fourth line of betting while Don Corleone remained an $8 elect for the world’s richest two-year-old race.