“When we gelded him, he had only a short time off and ran at Hawkesbury, then we took him to Queensland and he didn’t handle the track there, then he had a good spell.
“There looks to be really good speed in that race tomorrow, so you can always go back as long as you can run on.”
Trainer Gerald Ryan.Credit: Getty Images
Tim Clark rides Just Party, which was battling for favouritism at $7.50 (TAB) in a wide open affair.
Ryan and training partner Sterling Alexiou also have Grebeni ($23) and Green Shadows ($16) in the race, the highest-rated on a program was pushed back because of heatwave conditions on Saturday.
Grebeni, also drawn wide, was two lengths away last start in the Little Dance on November 4.
“He ran well then missed out on going to Kembla because of the wet weather, so we freshened him up for this run,” Ryan said.
“He’s a Magic Millions horse, there’s an 1800m race for him there, so he’ll have this run and another at Randwick and he will probably go there.”
Green Shadows was seventh in the Little Dance then fourth at Canberra.
“We were thinking Magic Millions with him, but the races aren’t quite suitable, so we decided to give him this race and then he’ll have a breather.”
Ryan hopes a weight drop and patient approach with Sanctified can reap rewards in the fifth, a benchmark 72 for three-year-olds (1200m). Sanctified was second last time out to Casserousse and was $13 for Sunday.
“His form overall is pretty good,” Ryan said.
“He got beat at the Kensington track first up by Sixties, and they’ve got a bit of an opinion of that horse, then he just got beat at Wyong and then won at Canterbury.
“We just freshened him up because he had three hard runs. We brought him back at 1000m, which was always going to be too short for him. Then other day I thought he ran really well.
“It’s a good race, a genuine Saturday class race, but he’s got race experience, it’s his home track and he will get firm footing, which I think he likes better than wet ground.
“He’s had a month between runs only because there’s been no races for him. I wanted to get him to a race where he drops a bit in the weights.”
Sargent hunts easy kill for filly
Randwick trainer John Sargent says Nullarbor Jane has come back bigger and stronger for a sharp drop in grade at Hawkesbury on Sunday.
The Too Darn Hot filly has just one placing in five career starts but the group 2 Riesling and Silver Shadow Stakes are among them. She was an odds-on favourite for the opener at Hawkesbury, a 1000m maiden plate, where she is first-up off a 13-week break and a winning trial.
“I’d like to get her out of maidens if I can,” Sargent said.
“She’s come back a lot bigger and stronger. I put her aside when she failed in her last run [when last in the Silver Shadow]. She probably just went to a race that didn’t suit and we’ll just work her through the grades this time.
“She showed in that recent trial she’s a natural and a really nice filly, and I think she will go on with it this time.
“If she happened to win well tomorrow, you could consider the Gosford Guineas with her. She’s a naturally fast horse so we’ll use that tomorrow.”
Bell sees promising road ahead
Jockey Mitch Bell was most impressed with the Annabel and Rob Archibald-trained Shady Road out his winning treble at Newcastle on Saturday.
Bell finished the day with three wins from three rides. His other on the program, Zoysia, was scratched at the gates.
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Bell’s first win came on Shady Road, which dominated at her second start, coming from last to take out the fillies and mares maiden plate (1150m) by a length and a half as a $10 shot.
“I thought Annabel’s was quite classy and put them away quite easily,” Bell said.
“Even though I was back last, it always felt like I had enough underneath me to put them away. I think it has a bit of upside to it, in the sense that it’s still learning.”
His other wins came on odds-on favourites Federal Reserve for Nacim Dilmi and Ahellbenda for Richard Litt.
