Ygritte was a consistent performer at Group level during her juvenile campaign and trainer Gerald Ryan believes that she will be an even better filly during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival.
Ygritte was narrowly denied a maiden win at Group level by Clifton Red during the 2014 Melbourne Festival Of Racing. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Ygritte was purchased for $135,000 at the Inglis 2013 Classic Yearling Summer Book Sale by Arrowfield Stud and she made her racing debut with an impressive two lengths victory over Singles Soiree and Chengdu in the Facebook Friends Race Day Maiden (1000m) at Kembla Grange on February 1.
The Snitzel filly made her debut at Group level in the Group 3 Widden Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens on February 15 and she was shuffled back to last coming around the turn before running home strongly to finish second behind subsequent Golden Slipper winner Mossfun.
Ygritte was well backed to score a maiden win at Group level in the Group 3 TBV Thoroughbred Breeders Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on March 8 and looked the winner at the 100 metre mark, but tired in the final stages of the race to finish second behind Clifton Red before finishing her autumn preparation with another second place finish behind Eloping in the Group 3 Royal Randwick Stakes (1200m) on the second weekend of The Championships.
Ryan was happy with the autumn campaign of Ygritte, but told Racing Ahead this morning that the three-year-old was a much stronger horse ahead of the start of her spring campaign in either the Group 3 San Domenico Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens on August 16 or the Group 2 Silver Shadow Stakes (1200m) at Royal Randwick on August 23.
“She has come up terrific and she will be entered in the San Domenico and the Silver Shadow,” Ryan said.
“She is going really good and has made massive improvement from the autumn.
“She gets into the fillies races quiet well because she has only won her maiden and she doesn’t cop a penalty, but she ran second to Mossfun and ran second up the straight at Flemington to David Hayes’ filly (Clifton Red) and then she came back and ran to Peter Morgan’s filly (Eloping) at Randwick.
“She is a lot stronger, probably sixty kilos heavier and she appears to be coming up really good.”
Ygritte was included in the nominations for both the Group 1 Thousand Guineas (1600m) and Group 1 Caulfield Classic (2000m) that were released by Racing Victoria yesterday.
