Top Ranked, Ellsberg share Epsom Handicap spoils

It may have been one of the smallest Epsom Handicap fields in recent memory, but it has produced one of the most thrilling finishes in the 157-year history of the Group 1 race.

At the end of the famous Randwick mile, the judge took several, agonising minutes to examine the photo finish but was unable to split Top Ranked ($4.60) and Ellsberg ($16), the two driving to the line together to produce the third dead-heat in Epsom Handicap history, the others occurring in 1873 and 1925.

Hinged ($4) was also close-up, another long head away third.

For Ellsberg’s conditioners Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou, it was their first major as a training partnership and the first of Alexiou’s career.

For Annabel Neasham, it was a thrill to get an Epsom win after she was certain Top Ranked was beaten.

“We were waiting for long enough and I didn’t think we had got it,” Neasham said

“I saw Sterling and he said ‘I wonder if I am going to have to share my first Group 1’ and I said, ‘I hope so’.

“The two of us were together in a classroom for a trainer’s trainee day on Wednesday and Thursday.

“If we had known a couple of days later we would be sharing an Epsom, I don’t think we would have believed it.”

The dead-heat was also a surreal experience for Hugh Bowman (Top Ranked) and Brenton Avdulla (Ellsberg), the latter believing he had got the verdict until there was a lengthy delay in declaring the winner.

“Halfway up I thought Hughie was home and the closer we got to the line I knew I was coming strong and I thought on the post I got him,” Avdulla said.

“But racing is a funny thing. When I came back (to scale), I would’ve been shattered if my number didn’t come up and the longer we were here (waiting for a result) we both said to each other “I just hope for a dead-heat”.”

The Epsom Handicap (1600m) was not originally on the radar for Ellsberg, Ryan and Alexiou believing he wasn’t quite up to Group 1 level at the distance after a couple of unsuccessful throws at the stumps.

But when it became clear only a dozen horses would be paid up for the race on Tuesday, they decided to roll the dice.

“We thought he was fringe Group 1 material and to tell you the truth, this race really wasn’t in our sights until Tuesday morning when the race came up a bit thin,” Alexiou said.

“We have looked after him his whole career and placed him really well, it was time to throw a bit of caution to the wind and give him his chance. It’s just good he has performed for everyone today.”

Neasham is hoping the Epsom win will get Top Ranked into the Cox Plate field, alongside his high-profile stablemate Zaaki, believing the grey is a “genuine weight-for-age horse”.

Icebath started a $3.60 favourite but was unable to sprint with the first three, finishing fourth and more than five lengths from the dead-heaters.