The field for today’s Group 1 $600,000 Schweppes All Aged Stakes (1400m) at Randwick has been reduced to ten runners following the scratchings of Clearly Innocent, Red Cardinal and Endless Drama.
Trapeze Artist, above, is the short priced favourite for the 2018 All Aged Stakes at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.
Trainer Darren Weir had thoughts to also scratch Red Cardinal’s stablemate Brave Smash if the track remained firm but the Japanese import remains in the field even with the Good 3 rating for the Randwick track this morning.
The Gerald Ryan trained Trapeze Artist remains the short priced favourite on race morning at $2.35 with Ladbrokes.com.au and looks the one to beat again after downing the nation’s number sprinter Redzel in the Group 1 $2.5m Darley T J Smith Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on day one of The Championships fortnight ago.
Ryan is opened minded what tactics jockey Tye Angland will settle on with Trapeze Artist and he will have to wait to see how the pattern unfolds in the early stages of the race.
“We have to play it by ear to see how the horses that go forward begin,” Ryan said on Sky Racing’s Racing HQ Saturday this morning.
“It is a different race all together (than the T J Smith Stakes), less pressure. His two wins he has been electric in, they have gone fast up front.”
“He did sit outside the leader in the Black Opal and outside the leader in the Expressway. I am not overly perturbed.”
“It will all play down to how the horses begin.”
Ryan has been happy with the Trapeze Artist’s progress since winning the T J Smith Stakes and that the All Aged Stakes was to be the Snitzel colt’s main Autumn Carnival target.
“I really can’t fault him. He is a quiet, laid back horse. Just eats his feed and does his work,” Ryan said.
“We always thought this was his ideal race in the Autumn, and the afterthought was the T J Smith.”
Brave Smash is on the second line of betting at $6.50 and did pull up a bit scratchy after finishing six and three quarter lengths seventh behind Trapeze Artist in the T J Smith Stakes.
The Chris Waller trained Tom Melbourne is next in the market order at $8 just ahead of Group 1 winners Le Romain at $8.50 and Hartnell at $9.
