Written by Oz Wedmore
Cover image courtesy of Ashlea Brennan
There were three juvenile heats at Rosehill Trials on Tuesday morning, with a double from the Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou stable headlined by a son of Russian Revolution who will return to action with some smart form in the bank.
Heat 5 - Coolmore colt back on track
A $1.1 million purchase by Tom Magnier at the 2022 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, Fightertown (Snitzel) was sent to the trials mid preparation by Chris Waller after finishing adrift in the G3 Baillieu H. on March 25.
Running in the Coolmore colours, connections will be hoping that winning his first trial on Tuesday will set the colt on an improved path, as he has so far failed to make the frame in all three race starts.
His performance on Tuesday was full of promise, as he improved smartly up the inside under his own steam, and fended off a late challenge with just a minimal nudge from Joao Moreira. He completed the 900-metre trial in 54.84s on a Soft 6, covering the final 600 metres in 35.37s.
Fightertown as a yearling | Image courtesy of Magic Millions
By Snitzel, the sire behind the same connections’ recent G1 Golden Slipper S. winner Shinzo, Fightertown has an interesting pedigree being out of a two-time juvenile winner in the US, Red Lodge (USA), who is by Darley America’s G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Midshipman (USA).
Heat 6 - Solid form sets up Salute to score
After finishing third on debut back in January behind Red Resistance (Russian Revolution) and Steel City (Merchant Navy) - both subsequent stakes winners - General Salute (Russian Revolution) returned from a break on Tuesday with a smart trial win.
Trained by Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou, the colt coasted up the centre of the course under Brenton Avdulla to finish 0.26l the better of Prairie Legend (I Am Invincible), one of four Chris Waller trainees in the seven-horse heat. General Salute clocked 53.96s for the 900-metre trial, covering the final 600 metres in 35.01s.
Withdrawn from both the Inglis Classic and Easter yearling sales in 2022, General Salute was bred and is now partially retained by the McMillan family. He is out of the stakes-placed Star Salute (General Nediym) and is a half-brother to Group 2 scorer Brutality (Shamus Award).
Heat 7 - Vieira’s colt unchallenged
Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou notched a second juvenile trial winner on Tuesday with their Trapeze Artist colt Snatchreilly. He was out early this season, bouncing from the first Official 2-Year-Old Trials at Randwick last September into the G3 Breeders’ Plate, but was sent for a spell after finishing seventh.
Winning his second of two trials since returning from that break, he was allowed to press forward from the gates under Josh Parr, and clocked the fastest times of the three juvenile heats on Tuesday - 53.08s for the 900 metres and 34.47s for the final 600 metres.
Bred by Trapeze Artist’s owner Bert Vieira, Snatchreilly was sold through Widden Stud’s draft at last year’s Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale, where he was purchased by his trainers for $600,000, and is now owned in large part by the Vieira family.
He is out of the winning O’Reilly (NZ) mare Natchwhali (NZ), a half-sister to Group 2 winner Oceanex (NZ) (Ocean Park {NZ}) and Group 3 winners Amexed (NZ) (Pentire {GB}) and Miss Aotearoa (NZ) (Per Incanto {USA}).
