Four time G1 winner Cascadian bows out
The nine-year-old retires with one of the more remarkable records in Australian racing, having won four Group One races- one in every calendar year from 2021-2024.
Originally trained by Andre Fabre in France, Cascadian came to James Cummings in the Spring of 2019, already rated 117 by Timeform having placed in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat (1600m) at Deauville.
No horse has run in more Australian Group One races over the past five years than Cascadian with an astonishing 29 attempts, his consistency rewarded with four wins at the top level along with a further nine placings.
His first Group One came in the 2021 Doncaster Mile under Jamie Kah where he cracked the 120 mark with Timeform for the first of 10 occasions.
Showing his versatility, Cascadian would also win the Group One All Aged Stakes (1400m) in 2022, before becoming just the sixth horse to win back-to-back Australian Cups, the second even better than the first.
Cascadian equalled his peak Timeform rating of 122 when he ran down Pride Of Jenni, Atishu and Mr Brightside in a performance trainer James Cummings believes is the horse’s crowning moment.
“He delivered in the first Australian Cup, but I don’t know if that was his highlight,” Cummings said.”All things being equal, the depth wasn’t there like it was the following year. So to go back-to-back in a harder race was quite amazing.”
Cascadian retires amongst the greatest Godolphin imports to Australia, tying with Avilius on nine for the most race wins on our shores (eight at stakes level), just ahead of Hartnell with eight.
He and the 128 rated Hartnell both won four Group One races in Australia while the 125 rated Avilius won three features.
Cascadian will join the likes of Hartnell and Avilius in the Godolphin Lifetime Care program, with trainer Cummings saying it was in the horse’s best interests to pull up stumps and not head to Queensland.
“It’s a few weeks since the Queen Elizabeth Stakes and I can just sense he’s still a bit tired from his most recent prep. Normally he would just go for a spell and then we would bring him back. But we did agree before the commencement of this preparation that it should be his last,” Cummings said.
“The least we can do is give Cascadian what he deserves.”
Cascadian retires with 12 wins from 54 starts and $10.8 million in prize money.
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