Numerian breaks Aussie duck with Gosford Gold Cup win

The Annabel Neasham-trained Numerian will join his star stablemate Zaaki in Queensland in the coming weeks after his brilliant win in Saturday’s Gosford Gold Cup (2080m).

It was the first victory for the six-year-old son of Holy Roman Emperor since being imported to Australia in September 2021.

After not offering too much in his first three Australian starts, the gelding showed his staying prowess on April 16 when second to Polly Grey in the Group 3 JRA Plate (2000m) at Randwick last start, before winning the Listed Gosford feature by just short of a length on Saturday.

Ridden by Sam Clipperton, Numerian jumped cleanly from barrier six and was able to settle handy to the speed, before moving up to the leaders and accelerating stylishly to defeat Great House and Mirann.

With Neasham on the Gold Coast to watch Zaaki’s Hollindale Stakes win, stable representative Kyle Ryan spoke with Sky Racing to discuss where we might see Numerian next.

“It’s very good – very relieved more than anything,” Ryan said.

“They (owners) sent him over about nine months ago to chase after this good prizemoney that Australia’s got. They’ve been very patient with the horse, as you can see. He’s only had the few runs over here in the nine months, but patience is being paid off now.

“He’ll probably head up north now.”

With plenty of prizemoney on offer over Brisbane’s Winter Carnival in races like the Doomben Cup (2000m) and Q22 (2200m), Numerian is likely to join his champion stablemate Zaaki in those middle-distance features.

Given that Numerian’s best form in Europe and now Australia has been over 2000m, it is expected the galloper will contest the Group 1 Doomben Cup on May 21, where he is a +2000 chance with Bovada, while Zaaki is the hot -166.67 favourite, although Ryan said he will leave the placement of the horse up to his boss.

“I’m not sure (where he will go next),” the stable representative said.

“We’ll leave that up to Annabel, she’s very good at placing all these horses, but he seemed to outstay that lot pretty well today.”