Back-to-back trials wins has the royally-bred filly Arctic Glamour poised to win the first race at the first ever King’s Birthday meeting at Warwick Farm on Monday.
The Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou trained two-year-old has laid the groundwork for a winning debut after posting consecutive trial wins at Rosehill on May 19 and again last Tuesday.
“Even though in the trial the other day they didn’t run flash time, she just floats along in front and just does what she has to do,” Ryan said.
“We always thought she went okay. She is not a mad deadset runner hence starting off 1200m first-up.
“She is tall, has good length about her and quite strong,” Ryan says. ‘’And she is a half to a stakes winner who won over a mile and quarter so she will get up to a mile later on.”
Arctic Glamour’s good looks and pedigree is reflected in her $175,000 purchase price at the 2020 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling sale.
A daughter of Frosted, Arctic Glamour is a half-sister to Waging War whose 2017 SAJC Chairman’s Stakes (2200m) for Leon Macdonald.
Arctic Glamour will have company in Monday’s ATC Schweppes Plate (1200m) from Snippety Star who started favourite in the $200,000 Inglis Challenge on Scone Cup day, clocking in sixth.
“I don’t know what happened at Scone,” Ryan said,
“I went there expecting that she would run really, really well.
“She showed no gate speed, no speed at all, she did finish off okay but it was way out of character at Scone.
Trainer Gerald Ryan. Picture: Mark Evans – Getty Images
“Whether she didn’t cope with the trip up, I don’t know, but she came home and did well back at home and she ran well at Kembla.”
Adding merit to Snippety Star’s May 27 second at Kembla was the horse she chased home, Zip On By, who won at Newcastle on Saturday.
Monday’s King Birthday card could see the gelding Just A Jedi cash in on a change of luck when he turns out in the Bisley Workwear Handicap (2140m) just days after his eye-catching run at Canterbury.
“He’s been stiff,” Ryan told The Daily Telegraph.
“After he ran at Scone he got balloted out once and was an emergency and didn’t get a start last week hence that’s why we ran him on Wednesday with the idea of backing him up into this 2140m and then going to 2400m with him.
“He has backed up once before five days apart and he won.
“He ran at Randwick on the Saturday and backed up on the Thursday at Gosford and won over 1900m
“He is good tough horse, he cops his racing really well and never leaves an oat.”
The stable’s remaining two runners at Warwick Farm on Monday – Master Showman and Deep Expectation – are both owned by their breeder, Bert Vieira.
Deep Expectation is a fourth generation descendant of Easy Date (the mother of Snippets) while Master Showman is a brother to Vieira/Ryan champion, Trapeze Artist.
‘’Master Showman has run well at 1300m here before,” Ryan explained. ‘’He begins quickly and puts himself up the speed.
‘’I thought (the jockey) might have gone a tad too slow on him at Randwick last start because he doesn’t quicken a lot, he just maintains it.”
Deep Expectations meanwhile has a tidy C.V with two wins and three seconds from her 10 starts.
One of those seconds was at Hawkesbury where she split In Secret and Sweet Mercy.
‘’She is a good honest filly who is happy and well at the moment,” Ryan said.