Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou are banking on the addition of winkers to spark Snitzel colt Blitzburg back to winning form after a frustrating and ultimately fruitless excursion to the Gold Coast for the Magic Millions.
The youngster was made second emergency for the $3 million Magic Millions Classic before suffering a setback that forced connections to pull the pin entirely.
“He was an emergency at the Gold Coast and we scratched him. He scoped with a bit of trace mucus up there,” co-trainer Sterling Alexiou said.
“He has come back well and we have been happy with him at home since.”
With three runs under his belt, Blitzburg will be the most experienced two-year-old in Saturday’s Group 3 Canonbury Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill where he will face six rivals, including Chris Waller duo Fermoy and Tropic.
Along with a win on debut at Newcastle, the Ryan and Alexiou youngster has finished fifth to subsequent Magic Millions winner O’Ole in the Wyong lead-up, beaten two lengths, before a last-start third at Eagle Farm in December.
Alexiou feels the colt only needs to make small improvement to be competitive on Saturday.
“He seems to be in a really good frame of mind and the winkers seem to have really switched him on in his work,” he said.
“He hasn’t been far away. He ran quite well in that Wyong Magic Millions lead-up and that form has really stood up so if he can get back to somewhere near that, and with a little bit of improvement in the winkers, hopefully he is right in amongst them.”
The Canonbury Stakes has been a handy autumn form reference in recent seasons, Vancouver in 2015 the last horse to win the Canonbury-Golden Slipper double.
