Vilana gave Godolphin, his bloodline and jockey Nash Rawiller, a second win in the $1 million The Hunter (1300m) on Saturday at Newcastle with a fighting effort to overhaul In The Congo.
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A half-brother to inaugural 2019 Hunter winner Savatiano, Vilana was backed into $4.80 favouritism and found a perfect spot behind pacesetters In The Congo and Apache Chase.
The four-year-old entire levelled up to Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained In The Congo with 100m to go and edged ahead to win by a third of a length. Another James Cummings-trained Godolphin runner, Gravina, was third.
Silver Eagle winner Vilana, out of the same dam, Retsina, as Savatiano, bounced back from a disappointing eighth in the $10 million Golden Eagle to give Godolphin another Hunter trophy.
"We're keeping it in the family," Godolphin stable representative and champion former jockey Darren Beadman quipped of Vilana's bloodline.
The win continued a dream spring of feature wins for Cummings and Godolphin, spearheaded by superstar Anamoe.
It also continued a strong recent history of feature wins at Newcastle, where they claimed a hat-trick of Spring Stakes titles with Astoria, Aramayo and Asiago from 2017-19.
"It's always been a good ground-breaking area for a lot of our horses," Beadman said.
"A lot come here and win their maiden. Colette won her maiden here and went on to win the Golden Eagle, so it's been a good venue for our horses to come through and then arrive here on the big days and win the big races.
"It's a very fair track since they put in the new track.
"Vilana, the track the other day [at Rosehill] was a little bit firm for him whereas today he really appreciated that good grass coverage and that little bit of softness in the ground."
Rawiller, who won the 2020 Hunter on John Thompson-trained Sweet Deal, said the track played a major part in Saturday's victory.
"I've got a lot of confidence in the horse from what he's showed me in previous rides," Rawiller said.
"Unless you really watched the stewards' replay you wouldn't know what he encountered in the Golden Eagle, but today he just used his natural speed to get across to a lovely spot and I knew he'd relax once he got there and it's just a matter of pushing the button.
"In the Congo is tough. It felt like we were going to beat it by a length and it just sort of kept coming with me but he's got a lot of class my bloke, he's on the way up.
"I reckon this track's better today than what he encountered there [at Rosehill].
"It was very firm and I felt the last 100 the other day, I couldn't knock him around anymore because he was feeling the ground a bit. Today he really stretched out beautiful on this lovely track."
Tommy Berry was dislodged from Eleven Eleven close to the finish but he recovered to ride in the next race.
Craig Kerry
Craig Kerry is a sports reporter for the Newcastle Herald.
Craig Kerry is a sports reporter for the Newcastle Herald.
