Shaune Ritchie and Colm Murray wouldn’t usually present a horse to the races without a trial, but that indicated how much they thought of Love The Sort, and she bolted in on debut at the Cambridge Synthetic on Wednesday.
The filly’s success was the first leg of a winning double for the stable, with Ritchie on course while Murray celebrated his birthday in the warmer climes of Queensland.
“I’ve just got back from the States and had a fantastic experience over there, and Colm took off this morning to go to the Gold Coast,” Ritchie said. “Really, he’s done the hard work on the horses winning today, and I get to stand there and count the money.”
An unknown to the public, Love The Sort opened at a decent price in the Waipa Earthworks 970, and after getting as short as $4, she closed at double figures. With a featherlight 51.5kg under Rihaan Goyaram, the two-year-old fired through the pack to find the lead and she never looked like being caught, gliding clear by two lengths from Rocky Mountain.
“I think it’s the first time in as long as I can remember that we’ve presented a horse at the races without having a barrier trial,” Ritchie said. “She’s shown us plenty of speed, and now that she’s used to the poly, we knew she had a great turn of foot on it.
“In the couple of jump-outs she’s had, she’s been a little ginger out of the gate, but we were prepared to take the risk on that, knowing how fast she was.
“After missing the kick slightly, she’s managed to get on to the fence, and we know she can rail like a little bit of a greyhound. I just love the way that she pinned her ears back and wanted to find the line, you can’t train that into them.”
A daughter of Tassort, Love The Sort was a A$42,500 purchase by Ritchie at the Magic Millions’ Gold Coast Yearling Sale, and she carries the same silks as her Group Two-winning stablemate Tuxedo.
“She just looked like a real runner to me,” he said. “Colm and I are aware that our best results have come in the staying races, with Cups and Oaks, and we probably prefer to train stayers, but having said that, we’ve got to keep up with the times.
“She’s just average-sized, but she’s built like a bullet, and we wanted to develop a sprinting type. As a two-year-old, that didn’t come up for us, we had to back off for maturity reasons, and that’s paid us back a little bit today.
“The horse is owned by a bride of different people, but the main owner of Tuxedo, Grant Barnett, likes his colours and owns a nice share in this horse. He got a bit of money to pay training fees off the TAB today, which is great, because that’s a part of the enjoyment of racing, putting a bet on your own horse.”
Ritchie indicated the filly would be off to the paddock at short notice, but she would be back for the early spring.
“She’ll almost certainly go for a break now, and then we’ll look at some three-year-old fillies races for her,” he said.
“She may be limited to that 1200m, so we’ll probably have to take the season early, because as we know with the three-year-olds, the distances step up the further you get into the summer.”
Later in the meeting, it was the turn of Hot Line Bling, who missed the start considerably, but was good enough to run down Radradra right on the line to collect his maiden over 1550m.
“I thought his run was impressive, given that we really feel he is a 2000m-plus horse,” Ritchie said.
“When he missed the start, it looked like it was all over, but after finding the right gap at the top of the straight, you’ve got to admire the way that he attacked the line in the last 200m. He wanted to win the race and he’s a beautiful style of an animal, he just looks like a really good staying sort of horse.”
The success came at his 11th start and was a welcomed reward for connections, after a tough journey with the four-year-old.
“When we presented him as a three-year-old he was racing quite well, he was only beaten narrowly at Whangarei, but he got an infection in the eye,” Ritchie said. “We had to make a decision and ask the owners whether they would pay for a pretty expensive operation, to get blood back into the retina so he could keep his eye, let alone race again.
“It’s cost them a pretty penny to get to this point, so it’s nice to see them rewarded.
“In his case, he’ll keep going through the winter, and if we can get him to a race like a New Zealand Cup (Gr.3, 3200m) on a light weight, I think that might be the sort of race within his range. I don’t think he’ll be stopping winning today.”
Meanwhile, excitement is building in the stable with the recent return of not only Tuxedo, but also Tajana, a Group One-performing juvenile this season.
“We’re very excited for Tajana and Tuxedo, they’ve both just come back into the stable and are going through some slow work at the moment,” Ritchie said.
“Tuxedo has put on 40-50 kilos, he’s now got a hind quarter like an open sprinter, rather than a mile and a quarter Group Two winner. I think we’ll keep him to 1400m and a mile this preparation, he was right there in a Karaka Million and won two Group races, so he was just off the top echelon of three-year-olds.
“With that natural strength, we expect him to be improved again, and we look forward to the Group races in the spring.
“Tajana has run third in a Sires’ Produce and is Group Two-placed, so she’s another exciting filly from The Oaks Stud.
“She’s getting ready for a 1000 Guineas (Gr.1 1600m), so we’ve got some classy horses to work with.” – LOVERACING.NZ News Desk
