Three year old Trapeze Artist produced a flying finish to down the short priced favourite Redzel to win the Group 1 $2.5m Darley T J Smith Stakes (1200m) on day one of The Championships at Randwick today.
Trapeze Artist, above, flies past Redzel to win the T J Smith Stakes at Randwick. Photo by Steve Hart.
The Gerald Ryan trained Trapeze was the star three year old of the 2017 Sydney Spring Carnival with a win in the Group 1 $1m De Bortoli Wines Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehill and has now returned in the Autumn to down the older horses in winning the weight for age T J Smith Stakes.
Trapeze Artist had been racing against the three year olds at his last two starts and Ryan was given the job of freshening up the Snitzel colt following his last start third to Kementari in the Group 1 $1m Mostyn Copper Group Randwick Guineas (1600m) at Randwick on a month ago.
“I have had a lot of faith in the horse,” Ryan said.
“He has been going good. The owners really twisted my arm about running him in it and I thought the best way I could is do the best to freshen him up and have a crack at it and see what we can do.”
“Last Friday morning he worked fantastic for him and I hoped he hadn’t gone over the top.”
“I thought we were going to be strong and about the 250m mark I looked back for English and In Her Time, I thought they would be swooping like we were, but once we got into momentum he just kept going strong, he did that in the Golden Rose.”
“If you get a fast run race up front, he seems to appreciate that, he gets into his action and he is very strong.”
It didn’t take jockey Tye Angland long to get over the disappointment of running a close second on Ace High in the Group 1 $2m Harrolds Australian Derby (2400m) that was run forty minutes earlier and produced a superb ride to claim the T J Smith Stakes.
Angland had Trapeze Artist ($8) well positioned back off the pace while Kerrin McEvoy had Redzel ($2.30 favourite) controlling the race from up front.
Redzel looked to have a good kick when McEvoy let him go at the top of the rise but when Trapeze Artist hit full stride it was clear that he was going to cut Redzel down as the post loomed and in the end scored a convincing two lengths win.
In Her Time ($4.40) ran another honest race and made up plenty of ground from the back to fill third spot.
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