Red Excitement scored a three-length win in the Group Three Summer Cup
For a trainer who has made a name for himself with young bloodstock, Gerald Ryan admits there is a special place in his stable for Red Excitement.
A rising eight-year-old with a history of leg issues, Red Excitement shaped up for a 2000m run for the first time in his 39 starts at Randwick on Boxing Day.
He passed the examination in emphatic style under jockey Adam Hyeronimus, scoring a three-length win in the Group Three Summer Cup.
Left to run the race on his own terms, Red Excitement ($6.50) had enough in reserve to kick strongly at the 300m and the gelding was never going to be caught.
Foreign Prince ($18) chased Red Excitement all the way in finishing second with Shalmaneser ($31) a length away third.
Ryan is never short on numbers when it comes to welcoming fresh talent into his stable.
The trainer is a prominent buyer at Australia’s yearling sales, but he concedes Red Excitement is a popular horse in his Rosehill yard.
“He’s a funny horse, but he’s everybody favourite,” Ryan said.
“To the horse’s credit he ran in a race at Moonee Valley as a two-year-old and here he is seven (years old) going to 2000 metres for the first time and braining them.”
Ryan had set Red Excitement for a summer treble comprising the Villiers Stakes, Summer Cup and Gosford Gold Cup.
But his plans we thwarted before the first leg when a rain-affected track ruled Red Excitement out of the Villiers.
“Missing the run in the Villiers wasn’t ideal but I thought if he was ever going to run 2000 metres it would be today,” Ryan said.
Hyeronimus said when he was allowed to find the front at his leisure, the race was always going to unfold favourably for his mount.
‘Nothing took us on and he dead-set jogged through the first three quarters of the race,” he said.
“With such an easy lead he was always going to be hard to run down.”
