Aft Cabin had promised so much in the Spring and had put up the figures to suggest he was a top-liner, but didn't have a concrete performance to say he was right up there with the best of his generation.

Second to Jacquinot when (I believe) unsuited coming back to 1200m and a touch unlucky returned a rating of 108, a good building block, and his Caulfield Guineas Prelude win was dominant but looked shaky.

A rating of 116 that day in atrocious conditions beating Meridius and Amenable again was just a glimpse of his talent but he went a long way to confirming that, returning with an equal peak performance on Saturday first up off a bleeding ban.

There's an old punting adage that you always back bleeders first up and unfortunately the R&S system doesn't have the stats on that but it is starting to show a pattern in this race with Aft Cabin joining Paulele and Kementari as Godolphin winners in the past five years.

All three followed identical patterns too, with one short course trial leading in to their first up win in the Eskimo Prince.

Aft Cabin, by Timeform's measure, sits in the middle of the three. Paulele was rated 115 in the Spring and matched that rating in the Eskimo Prince and has proven to be better than that on occasions, cracking the 120 mark thrice, including at his most recent Winterbottom win.

Kementari, rated 116 in the his 3yo Spring returned with a new peak of 119p, justifying that potential with wins in the Hobartville and Randwick Guineas, the latter of which was his career peak of 125.

Aft Cabin will likely follow the Kementari path with the Randwick Guineas and then the Doncaster Mile both high up on the agenda, and both look his for the taking.

Aside from Special K, Aft Cabin is clearly the best winner of the Eskimo Prince in recent years. Excluding Kementari, the average winning rating of the past ten years is 109.9, some 6 pounds off Aft Cabin.

Excluding Kementari, the next best comparison of Eskimo Prince winners gone by would be El Roca, who touched off Dissident first up after failing in the Caulfield Guineas. El Roca would then run second to Terravista before Dissident turned the tables by a nose in the Randwick Guineas, subsequently running third in the George Ryder, a race Kementari also placed in (behind Winx).

My opinion in the Spring was Aft Cabin was a better horse than stablemate Golden Mile, who took Aft Cabin's place as favourite in the Caulfield Guineas. The two are rated nearly identically (115 v 116) yet after Saturday there would be no one (worth listening to anyway) that could have Golden Mile ahead.

Aft Cabin's place at the top of the market for the Randwick Guineas and Doncaster Mile is justified (definitely for the former, easily arguable for the latter) yet coming back to Kementari, it's interesting to note he started $3.25 in the Hobartville and $2.38 in the Guineas.

Admittedly they were against a stronger crop with Pierata and Trapeze Artist both top class colts, even if better suited to sprinting, but then again, Kementari was rated higher than Aft Cabin at this point, and higher again post Hobartville.

With the Caulfield Guineas gone wanting, hopefully all this means we get another chance to back Aft Cabin this Autumn, whether it be in the Guineas, Ryder or Doncaster. Until then, we can only rue what could've been.