The sky’s the limit for Joe Pride‘s outstanding Epsom Handicap 2024 winner Ceolwulf who charged home over the famous Randwick mile to salute for the punters with an imposing victory ahead of the spring majors.

The Kiwi-bred Tavistock four-year-old was given a perfectly timed ride by the in-form Chad Schofield in this year’s time-honoured Group 1 $1.5 million Epsom Handicap (1600m) to salute for favourite backers in style.

For Pride it was his fourth Group 1 win over the track and trip with the top trainer now having two Epsom Handicap and two Doncaster Mile trophies in his growing cabinet.

Pride, best known for his sprinters including last year’s The Everest champion Think About It, has never had a miler of the class of Ceolwulf who could be the next big thing this season.

“That was fantastic,” he told Sky Thoroughbred Central post-win.

“We knew he had the right sort of profile coming into it and to see him let down like that, it’s very, very satisfying.

“He’s just a good horse on the rise. He’s just going to keep getting better with age and he’s so exciting. That was a real buzz.”

The Epsom Handicap champ further franked the form out of the Group 3 Kingston Town Stakes (2000m) improving on his lead-up second there to Eliyass to win the day’s feature race in Sydney.

Eliyass meanwhile ran a credible third as the beaten favourite in Melbourne behind the Chris Waller-trained Via Sistina and Buckaroo in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes (2000m) on Saturday.

Waller also took out the Group 1 The Metropolitan (2400m) with another Kingston Town Stakes graduate, Land Legend (6th), proving that race a strong form line this year.

Major Beel took up front running in this year’s Epsom Handicap while Schofield was happy to sit back on Ceolwulf keeping his composure when the eventual winner was a little slow out the gates.

Schofield let Ceolwulf find his stride and the make-up of the race pan out before pulling to the outside up the rise to begin his run in earnest.

He came right down the outside on the best horse in the field and Ceolwulf ($4F) proved his class back in distance over the final 100m with the wind in his sails drawing clear for a commanding win.

“It’s a good thrill. I was very confident today but an Epsom is a really hard race to win, you need everything to go right. I didn’t feel everything quite went perfectly, I wasn’t in a great spot,” the now five-time Group 1 winning jockey said.

“I thought I’d be much closer than where I was and the pace was quite muddling, but one good aspect of that was that I was a bit wide and able to flow.

“I was really blown away by his turn of foot. I know he had 54kg but he put the race away very quickly. As soon as I clicked him up, I was confident I was the winner immediately. He had a blistering turn of foot.”

In a brave second beaten 1.17 lengths off a wide run was the James Cummings-trained Tom Kitten ($12) who made an early move and was gallant late trying to go with the monster winner with Royal Patronage ($6.50) a close third for the Waterhouse/Bott stable.

Still untapped it could be scary scenes for future rivals of Ceolwulf who has far from reached his full potential.

“He’s got a great engine,” Pride said.

“I see it every time he runs, the way he recovers from races and track gallops. He’s an amazing athlete, and as I say, the best is yet to come.

“He’ll run a little bit further than that but no need to toy with that too much at the moment.

“We’ll enjoy that one today and think about where we go next.”

Pride said they would keep options open but hadn’t ruled out a quick back-up into the lucrative Group 2 $2 million Hill Stakes (1900m) next weekend.

“Yet to discover that (what his best distance is),” Pride said.

“He could well back up in the Hill Stakes next week but I haven’t ruled out, you could come back here for the King Charles.

“There’s a lot of options. Let’s just sit on it for now and enjoy that.”

The Group 1 $5 million King Charles III Stakes (1600m) is held at Randwick on The Everest Day, October 19.

Futures 2024 King Charles III Stakes odds at Ladbrokes.com.au have Ceolwulf at $8 to win.

Click here for the full markets.

2024 Epsom Handicap Results & Finishing Order

	Finish	No.	Horse	Trainer	Jockey	Margin	Bar.	Weight	Penalty	Starting Price
	1	7	CEOLWULF (NZ)	Joseph Pride	Chad Schofield		14	54kg		$4F
	2	9	TOM KITTEN	James Cummings	Tommy Berry	1.17L	19	54kg		$12
	3	2	ROYAL PATRONAGE (FR)	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Tim Clark	1.9L	17	56kg		$6.50
	4	4	KOVALICA (NZ)	Chris Waller	James McDonald	2.02L	1	55.5kg		$7.50
	5	15	ARCTIC GLAMOUR	Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou	Andrew Adkins	2.08L	6	50kg		$41
	6	1	MY OBERON (IRE)	Annabel Neasham & Rob Archibald	Nash Rawiller	3.16L	20	56.5kg		$16
	7	12	MAJOR BEEL (NZ)	Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott	Ms Winona Costin	3.7L	9	51.5kg		$17
	8	6	DEMOCRACY MANIFEST	Chris Waller	Kerrin McEvoy	3.95L	10	55kg		$31
	9	18	KINTYRE	Gary Portelli	Ms Cejay Graham	4.23L	7	50kg		$19
	10	10	BERKSHIRE SHADOW (GB)	Ciaron Maher	Ashley Morgan	4.25L	8	53kg		$41
	11	19	FIRESTORM (NZ)	Chris Waller	Mark Du Plessis	4.34L	13	50kg		$26
	12	8	NUGGET (GB)	Ciaron Maher	Dylan Gibbons	4.56L	11	54kg		$31
	13	20	GALERON (IRE)	Annabel Neasham & Rob Archibald	Ms Alysha Collett	4.85L	4	50kg		$51
	14	16	MCHALE	Chris Waller	Ms Rachel King	5.22L	15	50kg		$31
	15	13	CHRYSAOR	Chris Waller	Craig Williams	5.8L	5	51.5kg		$15
	16	14	MOLLY BLOOM (NZ)	Chris Waller	Zac Lloyd (a)	7.24L	3	50.5kg		$31
	17	5	REDIENER	Chris Waller	Joshua Parr	7.25L	12	55.5kg		$31
	18	17	AUSBRED FLIRT	Brad Widdup	Reece Jones	7.3L	2	50kg		$61
	19	11	LOCH EAGLE	Kris Lees	Jay Ford	9.25L	18	52.5kg		$151
	20	3	DETONATOR JACK (NZ)	Ciaron Maher	Jason Collett	9.65L	16	56kg		$21
		21e	FLOATING	Matthew Smith	Reece Jones		0

Table Credit: Racing Australia. 

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