“LADY” READY FOR FIRST 1400m ASSIGNMENT

BLAKE Ryan has confirmed Lady Extreme as a definite Rosehill Gardens starter on Saturday at her first attempt at 1400m.

Notwithstanding the new distance assignment coupled with her 60.5kg topweight and a wet track, the Hawkesbury trainer is hoping to parlay his best season into a winning start to the new one.

Dual acceptor Lady Extreme tackles the Benchmark 78 Handicap against her own sex rather than a similar class race over the same distance for all sexes, where she had 2kg less.

Alysha Collett has formed a successful union with the mare (two wins and a city in Grafton’s Listed Ramornie Handicap from three rides) this preparation, and continues that association.

“We gave some consideration to claiming, but Alysha knows Lady Extreme well now,” Ryan said this morning.

“It’s been a different preparation for the mare as she had a couple of gut-busters (winning in town) and the return trip to Grafton.

“She has had her runs spaced, but we will know after Saturday’s performance whether she needs a break.

“I’m not concerned about her weight, the track or the fact that she is trying 1400m for the first time, but putting all three together does pose some query.

“Lady Extreme is against her own sex and there are already five scratchings, and I feel she will handle the 1400m because she settles in her races.

“She won over 1250m at Canterbury 12 months ago and then ran second over the same distance there on New Year’s Day.

“Obviously the favorite (Tuileries) is the one we have to beat.”

Ryan has done a superb job with Lady Extreme (four wins and six placings from a dozen starts) after owner Luke Wilkinson had a change of heart, having initially planned to send the rising six-year-old mare to stud without racing her.

Ryan prepared a benchmark 15 winners in the 2024-25 season (second only to Hawkesbury’s leading trainer Brad Widdup), and his runners earned just over $706,000 compared with $545,000 the previous season.

Fellow Hawkesbury trainer Jack Pilkington is awaiting the result of a blood test before confirming another mare Pretty Tavi (Reece Jones) as a certain starter in the Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1400m) at Rosehill.

“Provided her blood test comes back okay, she will run and hopefully we can get a city breakthrough with her,” he said this morning.

Pretty Tavi has been placed at both runs this campaign at Rosehill over 1300m, on June 28 and July 19.

Whilst the form guide doesn’t speak highly of Pretty Tavi’s wet track credentials, Pilkington disagrees with that.

“I feel she runs well on soft tracks, and at this stage of her career is better off on them anyway because of wear and tear,” he said.

“Her first-up was good and second-up run solid but not with the same sort of zip.”

Pilkington said Pretty Tavi was nearing the end of her racing career, with the likelihood she would be mated with a stallion mid-prep.

“Pretty Tavi races well at Rosehill, and it would be nice to get a city win with her on Saturday if we line up.

“Further down the track, I’m hoping to get a start with her in the $500,000 Four Pillars (1500m) at that track in early November, which would be her swansong.”

Pilkington’s talented young sprinter Alabama State, who ran fourth from a horror draw in last year’s Four Pillars, will return in the new season as a gelding.

“Alabama State is still six or seven weeks away from racing,” Pilkington said.

The winner of three races (two at home and a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap, 1400m at Rosehill last October, Alabama State also finished fourth in the Group 3 Spring Stakes (1600m) at Newcastle the following month.

He was spelled after being unplaced in the Group 3 Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m) on May 3.

Story John Curtis, July 31, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos