Sparkly Star shines as a gelding for Ryan

Wednesday 13 June 2018, 2:37pm

The decision to geld Sparkly Star has paid immediate dividends, with the three-year-old breaking his maiden at Warwick Farm first-up after the procedure.

Trainer Gerald Ryan recommended gelding Sparkly Star following three winless outings and, less than a week after his breeding potential was spiked, he has comfortably claimed the TAB Rewards Plate (1100m).

The $2 favourite cleared out in the straight under Brenton Avdulla to hit the line 1-3/4 lengths clear of Sweet Scandal ($4.80).

Kaecilius ($15) was 2-1/2 lengths back in third.

"He took a little bit to muster but once he got up underneath Kerrin (McEvoy, riding Sweet Scandal), he settled well and travelled well," stable representative Blake Ryan said on Wednesday.

He said a Saturday assignment could be added to Sparkly Star's program.

"He's pretty fit. It's more about race craft with him. We'll take him home and see how he pulls up," he said.

"As long as he's picking up prize money and getting confidence, he's going to learn a bit."

Avdulla's 80th metropolitan winner increased his buffer in the Sydney jockeys' premiership to 13 over closest challenger Blake Shinn.

"I haven't had much to do with him but every now and then on a Friday I'll go to Gerald's and gallop one," he said.

"He doesn't really tell me who they are. He told me this one was a maidener and I told him not for long."

Avdulla trialled Sparky Sweet at Rosehill last week and took confidence from the experience as heavy ground loomed on Wednesday.

"I gave him a squeeze on the wet ground and I thought he'd handle it today," he said.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »