He won the Moonee Valley Cup last year, but Lloyd and Nick Williams are now dreaming of victory of another race at Moonee Valley in late October with The United States.
Their ever-improving import, who is prepared by Robert Hickmott, on Saturday logged his maiden Group 1 win when he took out the Ranvet Stakes at Rosehill.
The Galileo six-year-old scored by three-quarters of a length from $3.30 favourite Hauraki and last year’s Cox Plate runner-up Criterion, who was 3-1/4 lengths away, in the 2000-metre event to confirm to Williams Jnr that he belongs in that grade.
“He is very, very tough,” Nick Williams said. “You saw he had seven runs in the spring, so he can go to the paddock now as a Group 1 winner and we can get him ready for the Cox Plate.”
The United States’ Ranvet win came seven days after his tough second in a quickly-run Blamey Stakes(1600m) at Flemington last Saturday. His only other start this campaign produced a fifth placing in the Group 1 Futurity Stakes (1400m).
“The horse came through last week well and just bounced straight off it and that made the decision very easy to come up here,” Williams said.
“We would not have brought him if he wasn’t in perfect order even off that hard race.”