Godolphin youngster Spacewalk hasn’t quite lived up to Hugh Bowman’s early expectations, but the champion jockey believes the colt can go on with the job after breaking his maiden at Canterbury.
Placed in the Listed Lonhro Plate two starts ago, Spacewalk enjoyed a significant drop in grade and handled the heavy conditions to comfortably account for his rivals in the Brazen Beau@ Darley Handicap (1100m) on Thursday.
Bowman believes the James Cummings-trained two-year-old has untapped potential and is on the road to fulfilling it following his confidence-boosting victory.
“He’s got a good attitude, he’s got a really good action and he’s got an engine too,” Bowman said.
“It was a great starting point for him. Although he has had a couple of runs, I think James (Cummings) and the stable can really build him onto better things because there is no doubt he’s up to black-type company.”
Spacewalk gave Bowman the second leg of an early two-year-old double after he took out the opening race aboard Willinga Beast for Kris Lees.
A $625,000 Magic Millions yearling, the Snitzel youngster delivered on the promise she had shown at the trials with a 2-1/4 length win over Deep Expectation and Bowman said she had plenty of scope for progression.
“Her recent trial at Wyong certainly looked impressive to the eye, but you never quite know until race day pressure is put upon them and she delivered in spades,” Bowman said.
“Having her first start, not everything went smoothly.
“She was flushed out early enough and she has wandered around a little bit in her mind when she got to the front. She will improve on today.”
Willinga Beast holds nominations for the Group 1 Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on April 2 and the $1 million Percy Sykes Stakes (1200m) a week later.
Lees says all options are on the table for the talented filly.
“I thought she did it with a little bit in hand so she might have a nice future,” Lees said.
“She was quite an expensive yearling so good to see her produce first time out.”