🔒 🔒 Tempted’s Champions Sprint assignment comes with global ambitions

While Godolphin is confident Tempted’s Champions Sprint appearance will be a suitable encore to her victory in The Everest, her performance at Flemington on Saturday will be used as a guide to her likely international campaign through 2027.

Jason Walsh, Godolphin Australia’s racing and bloodstock manager, believes the daughter of Street Boss is shaping as the best filly or mare the organisation has raced in Australia, with the potential to carry the local team’s success onto the world stage.

“I think she’s shaping probably as our best female we’ve ever raced down here. That’s not to do a disservice to some very good mares. I think In Secret probably had a very similar level of ability and we never got to see her at her very best for long enough,” Walsh said. 

The Everest heroine will put an unbeaten season on the line at Flemington on Saturday, chasing another Group 1 victory in the Champions Sprint while offering one of the world’s most visible thoroughbred operations an important insight into what might lie ahead in 2027.

For Godolphin and trainer Ciaron Maher, there is more at stake than a $3 million contest that will be one of the highlights of the four-day Melbourne Cup carnival.

Tempted’s first appearance over Flemington’s straight course will help inform those plans, although Walsh cautioned against treating the result as a definitive verdict on her international prospects.

“I wouldn’t be saying that she’ll be absolutely condemned on tomorrow’s performance one way or the other because she’s coming off such a peak in the Everest,” he said. “Our expectation is she’s very high class and she’ll handle that no problem. If we can move forward with straight options with some confidence, it’ll help us plan for next year.”

A compelling argument already exists for testing Tempted on foreign soil, given the status of her vanquished Everest rivals.

Ka Ying Rising has established himself as the world’s pre-eminent sprinter and Tempted not only matched him but beat him to reverse the 2025 Everest result.

Walsh said finding Australian horses capable of competing internationally was central to Godolphin’s ambitions.

“We’re constantly on the look for horses that we can compete on the international stage. It’s no secret that it’s an ambition of the organisation founded by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed to compete in the best races around the world. If we can provide some candidates from Australia, it’s a very key part of what we do,” he said.

The Al Quoz Sprint down the Meydan straight on Dubai World Cup night at the end of March is an option, with quarantine considerations making a subsequent Royal Ascot campaign more likely than an immediate return to Australia.

“We’d love to see her race on Dubai World Cup night if we could as an option there at the end of March,” Walsh said.

“From there it can be difficult to return to Australia just with quarantine requirements and that sort of thing. So if we do take that option, it’s likely probably that she’d then go on to Royal Ascot, which is now a well-worn path for mares of her ability.”

“I think she’s shaping probably as our best female we’ve ever raced down here. ” – Jason Walsh on Tempted

An Everest title defence would also weigh on those decisions.

“Something we’d like to do, and obviously we’ve got an Everest title to consider for a lot of money, and we’d love to defend that and give the racing industry the chance to see her compete again against Ka Ying Rising,” he said.

Walsh is also open to keeping the Breeders’ Cup at the newly rebuilt Belmont Park in consideration at the end of 2027, although discussions about next year’s programme will follow the Champions Sprint.

“They are lovely considerations to have with the horse of her talent. As I say, the focus is obviously tomorrow’s race, and we’ll get to discussions about next year after that,” he said.

Tempted would become the third horse to complete the Everest-Champions Sprint double in the same season should she continue on her winning way, joining Redzel (2017) and Nature Strip (2021).

She has been faultless in 2026, following an outstanding autumn that included Group 1 success in the Surround Stakes with a spring campaign featuring victories in the Concorde Stakes, Premiere Stakes and Everest.

For Walsh, the Everest result also rewarded the work behind Godolphin’s Australian breeding and racing operation.

“You get a feel for that in winning a race like the Everest with the world’s best sprinter in Ka Ying Rising in second. The local team got a massive boost out of that,” he said.

But the Champions Sprint will represent unfamiliar turf for Tempted as she makes only her second appearance in Melbourne.

It promises to be much better than her first Melbourne appearance as an inexperienced two-year-old, when she was unplaced in the Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield.

Walsh said the relevance of Flemington’s test extended beyond Saturday, with straight-course racing a feature of the overseas programme Godolphin is considering.

“She’s been relatively lightly raced through her three-year-old season and the early part of this year as an older mare, so we think she has another performance in her,” he said.

“We’re keen to try her down the Flemington straight course with a view not only to domestic options next year, but most of the key sprints in the Northern Hemisphere, primarily in Europe and Dubai, are run down a straight course, and she’s yet to compete down there.”

At four, Tempted has time on her side and the Champions Sprint result need not be the final word on her international prospects.

Nevertheless, she is an overwhelming favourite to stretch an unblemished record since Ka Ying Rising had her measure in the 2025 Everest.

The Champions Sprint is the race that welcomed Black Caviar to the Group 1 ranks and more recent history has been just as kind to mares, with Roch ‘N’ Horse (2022), Imperatriz (2023) and Sunshine In Paris (2024) sitting on the honour roll.

Tempted’s opposition at Flemington will include Joliestar, a mare with five Group 1 wins alongside her name who travelled to Royal Ascot this year and finished third in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes.

They met in the Everest, with Joliestar filling a minor placing.

For Godolphin, the ambition extends beyond another domestic victory to showcasing the Australian operation’s work internationally.

“To have one good enough to compete on the world stage is an aspiration for our organisation to contribute something from Australia,” Walsh said.