Godolphin gelding Pericles has vindicated the decision to bypass a suitable race in Melbourne in favour of a lucrative sprint closer to home with a gripping win in the Russell Balding Stakes.
In two-minds over whether to take the horse south for the Damien Oliver (1400m) at Flemington, or roll the dice in a competitive renewal of Saturday’s Russell Balding Stakes (1300m) at Randwick, trainer Bjorn Baker and owners Godolphin landed on the latter.
PERICLES wins the Russell Balding Stakes!
@djgibbons22 drives the @godolphin gelding along the inside to hand @BBakerRacing the Group 2 at Randwick over the fast finishing Headwall with Caballus in third. @tabcomau https://t.co/hrFkFiB1IF
— Racing NSW (@racing_nsw) October 31, 2026
And they were glad they did when Pericles ($17) surged through along the inside for Dylan Gibbons to edge out Headwall $4.60) by three-quarters of a length with the winner’s stablemate, Caballus $17) another long neck away in third.
“From the minute he was transferred to Bjorn he made a lot of commentary about how fast he was, and I think we’ve seen that today,” Jason Walsh racing and bloodstock manager for Godolphin, said.
“He’s obviously had two six furlong runs in preparation for it, and he looked pretty well at home the other day.
“He’s a very, very talented animal. His distance range is somewhere up to a mile. He’s taken us to a lot of big days, and it’s great to get a result like that in such a lucrative race.”
Pericles is a winner up to 1800m, but Baker has trained him for speed to start his campaign.
The fruits of that were evidence in his winning time of 1:14.05, which bettered the track record held by Trapeze Artist since 2019.
Given it was only the horse’s third run of the campaign on Saturday, Walsh said they would give consideration to several options for his next start, including the C F Orr Stakes (1400m) at Sandown on November 14.
“We were talking about the C F Orr from here,” Walsh said.
“A little bit may depend on if Beiwacht is turning up there as well. But that’s probably the next option without pre-empting what we might do. He’s a great horse.”
Jimmysstar tarted a $3.80 favourite but jockey Ethan Brown said the moderate tempo didn’t suit the backmarker.
“Race shape against,” Brown said.
