Top Drop and Ironstein will head trainer Gerald Ryan’s advance team for the Brisbane winter carnival when the pair line up at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Ryan also entered Angel Of Mercy for Eagle Farm but the three-year-old filly will remain in Sydney for Saturday’s Listed James HB Carr Stakes (1400m) at Randwick.
Ryan nominated Top Drop for the Group Two Victory Stakes (1200m) but will dodge the weight-for-age feature in favour of a Class 6 Plate (1200m).
“I’m taking the easier option with him in the class six race, but it doesn’t look any easier,” Ryan said.
“He would have got about six kilos off them if the Victory Stakes was a handicap race.”
Ryan believes Top Drop, who will be ridden by Josh Adams, could emerge as a lightweight chance for the Group One Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 9.
The son of Snitzel won four of his 21 starts before being gelded following his seventh to Spirit Of Boom in the Magic Millions Cup at the Gold Coast in January.
At his only start as a gelding, four-year-old Top Drop finished ninth to Zaratone in the Group Three Sebring Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill on April 7.
“He’s eligible for a lot weaker class than what he’s been running in lately but he’s going good,” Ryan said.
“If you go through his record it’s quite good and he’s run some good races in good company.
“When I took him to Caulfield in the spring he carried on like a stallion and went awful but he then came out and won at Geelong and ran second to Facile Tigre in the Security Stakes at Flemington.
“He still misbehaved when he won at Geelong and when he came back to Sydney he stood in the barriers in the Carrington Stakes at Warwick Farm before we took to him to the Gold Coast for the Magic Millions Cup.”
Ryan is aiming Ironstein for the Group Two Brisbane Cup (2400m) at Eagle Farm on June 9.
Ironstein, who has failed at his only two starts this campaign in the Group Two Ajax Stakes at Rosehill and Group Three Doncaster Prelude at Randwick, will also be ridden by Adams in the Tails Stakes (2100m).
“He’s taking time to get fit this time in but he’ll run on Saturday and then every two weeks until the Brisbane Cup,” Ryan said.
Ironstein has won eight races including two in Queensland, the Listed Caloundra Cup in 2010 and Group Three Tatt’s Cup at Eagle Farm last year which followed his fourth in the Brisbane Cup won by the Gai Waterhouse-trained Tullamore.
