Dances On Stars A Chance For Takeover Target Stakes

Trainer Gerald Ryan will decide on Wednesday whether he gives Dances On Stars the chance to record his second straight win at Listed level in the Takeover Target Stakes (1200m) at Gosford on Friday.

Dances On Stars is a chance to back up in the Takeover Target Stakes at Gosford on Saturday after winning the Carrington Stakes last Wednesday.

Dances On Stars is a chance to back up in the Takeover Target Stakes at Gosford on Saturday after winning the Carrington Stakes last Wednesday. Photo by: Steve Hart

Dances On Stars returned to the races with a narrow victory over Hidden Warrior and Dee ‘N’ Gee in the Listed Carrington Stakes (1100m) at Royal Randwick on New Year’s Eve and Ryan told AAP that he was happy with the way the four-year-old had pulled up after the race.

The Snitzel gelding generally has at least two weeks between his race starts but has raced twice in seven days on two previous occasions; finishing ninth in the Group 1 T.J. Smith (1600m) at Eagle Farm in 2012, after finishing third in the Group 2 BRC Sires Produce Stakes (1400m) a week before, and sixth in the 2012 Group 2 Sandown Guineas (1600m) following a disappointing performance in the Listed Hilton Hotels Stakes (1400m).

“He’s done super; he deserved the win and it didn’t seem to take much out of him,” Ryan told AAP.

“He went into the Carrington without a trial so I’ll just see if he continues do as well as he has.

“I will make a decision on Wednesday whether he backs up and he does race very well fresh.”

Dances On Stars has recorded just three wins from eighteen career starts but has generally performed well at Group level since making his debut as a two-year-old during the 2011 Spring Racing Carnival in Sydney.

He scored an impressive win in the Group 3 Kindergartens Stakes (1100m) at Royal Randwick during his 2012 autumn campaign and was placed behind Sizzling in the Listed Ken Russell Memorial Classic (1200m), Group 2 Champagne Classic (1200m) and BRC Sires Produce Stakes during the 2012 Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival.

Dances On Stars recorded his second win in the Blackwoods Galmet Handicap (1350m) at Rosehill Gardens in the summer of 2012 but failed to fire at Group level before returning to his best form during the 2013 Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival; finishing third in the Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas and second, once again behind Sizzling, in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas (1400m).

The Takeover Target Stakes field is set to be very similar to the one Dances On Stars faced in the Carrington Stakes and placegetters Hidden Warrior and Dee ‘N’ Gee are both expected to back up in the Listed event.

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Thomas Hackett

Thomas is a passionate and opinionated racing journalist and punter who has been obsessed with horse racing since he backed Saintly to win the 1996 Melbourne Cup. An international racing enthusiast, he has his finger on the pulse of racing news not just from Australia but all around the world.