It won’t take too much to convince trainer Gerald Ryan to give Solicit her chance in the Doncaster Mile.
As long as the mare maintains her form in Saturday’s Emancipation Stakes at Rosehill, she could still take her place seven days later in the $3 million race at Randwick.
“She might back up. We have not ruled it out,” Ryan said.
“It’s a three-million-dollar race and she gets in with 51-1/2 (kilograms) on her back.
“She won’t have another chance like that so it’s not out of the question if she comes through Saturday well.”
The mare is the ruling favourite for the Group Two Emancipation (1500m), her fifth start of a campaign which has netted a win in the Guy Walter Stakes and three minor placings.
Her Apollo Stakes second to Winx and her 1400m track record in the Guy Walter erased the doubts Ryan had about Solicit’s ability at Randwick.
At her second start after joining his stable last year, Solicit was eased down in the Aspiration Quality and showed a poor post-race recovery.
She hadn’t raced at the track again until Winx ran her down in the Apollo.
“She came out and ran a course record at her next start so Randwick is not a problem,” Ryan said.
“And she is in the best form she has been in since she’s been with me.”
Although Solicit is yet to win beyond 1500m, she did run second in the Vinery Stud Stakes (2000m) won by Lucia Valentina two years ago when trained by Mathew Ellerton and Simon Zahra.
As a spring three-year-old she also ran third in the Wakeful (2000m) and VRC Oaks (2500m), both won by Kirramosa.
Solicit’s owner David Moodie decided to send her to Sydney in the hope a change of scenery would spark a return to form and hopefully a Group One win before she is retired to stud.
If that doesn’t come in the Doncaster, the weight-for-age Queen Of The Turf a week later remains the option.
