SARA Ryan says “the sky is the limit” for her $3m Big Dance winner Attractable at Royal Randwick today.
And the same can surely be said about the young Wyong trainer, who is in only the early stages of her fledgling career and clinched by far her biggest payday.
Ryan’s teak tough five-year-old Attractable ($19) sat on the speed and wouldn’t surrender after hitting the front after straightening, holding off $4.80 favorite Cepheus to earn the $1.56m first prize for his owners Domeland.
Ryan worked at Domeland’s Central Coast property for several years before taking on the role as head trainer – and is now into only her second full season.
Ryan’s confidence in Attractable (Regan Bayliss) landing the second running of The Big Dance grew when she rode him work yesterday morning.
“He tried to buck and was having a play coming off the track,” she said.
“When he does that, I always know he is right to run well.
“This horse gives his heart and that’s why I love him so much.
“He is five-year-old, but keeps getting better and the sky’s the limit.”
Black Caviar’s trainer Peter Moody won four races (including two at Sandown) in Victoria with
Attractable, and Ryan now also has won a similar number with him, including the Big Dance eligible Coffs Harbour Cup (1600m) in early August.
In fact, those four wins have arisen from the gelding’s last six starts.
Attractable’s Big Dance success wasn’t surprising – but his starting price certainly was in view of his great form.
He had finished a close fourth to Cepheus in the $1.5m Alan Brown Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill Gardens on October 14, and met his conqueror on slightly better terms this time.
Ryan’s Big Dance triumph was clearly the highlight on a big day’s racing, but Newcastle trainer Kris Lees, Mark Minervini and Jason Deamer didn’t miss out either at Randwick.
Lees won both the $750,000 Little Dance (1600m) with Spangler ($7.50) and Benchmark 88 Handicap (1500m) with $2 favorite Loch Eagle, ridden by Tommy Berry and Nash Rawiller respectively.
Lees, who won the inaugural Big Dance last year with Rustic Steel when it was worth $1m less than today’s purse, put blinkers back on Spangler, who has now two features at Randwick on wet ground.
He spreadeagled his rivals – Loch Eagle was runner-up – in the $500,000 Provincial-Midway Championship Final (1400m) in April on a heavy track.
Minervini got Quick Tempo ($7) back into winning form in the Benchmark 84 Handicap (1000m) after a heady Jason Collett ride.
Collett took full advantage of the smart sprinter’s good beginning and made sure $2.50 favorite Iowna Merc didn’t have his own way in front.
There was a touch of irony about Minervini being at Randwick, let alone winning a race. He had hoped to be at Flemington instead to run Raging Bull in the $8.4m Melbourne Cup (3200m), but it didn’t work out and the gelding was sent for a spell.
Just as Minervini has done a fantastic job with Quick Tempo, winning seven races, so too has Deamer with Hard To Say.
An $11 chance with Ash Morgan aboard, four-year-old Hard To Say clinched his sixth career victory, in the Benchmark 100 Handicap (1100m) – and the last four have come on the bounce in two States.
Provincial trainers also were to the fore at Kembla Grange, Muswellbrook, Tamworth and Sapphire Coast fixtures.
Especially at the former where they bagged five of the nine winners.
Local trainers Rob and Luke Price (Brave Agenda, $3) and Diane Poidevin-Laine (Jamberoo, $26), Hawkesbury’s Brad Widdup (Likeabomb, $11) and James Ponsonby (Socrates, $2.10 favorite), and Newcastle’s Nathan Doyle (Lalaguna, $7.50) were Cup day winners.
Doyle spread his wings to Muswellbrook and also scored with My Eloise ($3.10 favorite).
Gosford’s Carmen Murnane went to Tamworth to win with four-year-old Finance Partner ($2.50), and Kembla Grange’s Brett Lazzarini ventured further south to break through with $2.30 favorite Berenike at her 17th start.
*Story John Curtis, November 7, 2023 - Pics Steve Hart Photographics*
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