Fresh from plundering their first Group 1 win as a training partnership with Ellsberg, Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou have already set their sights on another with classy colt Williamsburg.
The three-year-old will back-up from his third-up success in the Dulcify Quality last weekend as part of a five-race plan to have him peaking for the Group 1 Spring Champion Stakes (2000m) at Randwick on October 22.
Saturday’s Gloaming Stakes (1800m) will be an important step on that path and while it means sending him to the races off a seven-day turnaround, Ryan says not running this weekend would leave him vulnerable in the $2 million feature.
“It would have been hard going to the Group 1 over 2000 metres when he would have only had one run in six weeks,” Ryan said.
“The plan was always to run in these five races and I’m not changing.
“He cops his racing so well this horse. He is going to be hard to beat again.”
Williamsburg was Group 1 placed off a seven-day back-up in the autumn and didn’t have a hard run in the Dulcify, settling last and making one sweeping run down the outside to score.
Importantly, three of his five wins have been on heavy tracks and he is likely to strike similar conditions this weekend.
The rain isn’t welcome news for stablemate Brosnan, who is being aimed towards the Callander-Presnell (1600m) on the Spring Champion Stakes program but won’t contest the Gloaming if the surface is worse than slow.
Ryan and Alexiou’s Silver Eagle hopeful Flying Crazy is also at the mercy of the weather and like Brosnan, will only take his place if the track doesn’t deteriorate.
