| Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou teamed up to win their first Group One race when ultra consistent galloper Ellsberg scored a thrilling dead heat success in today’s $1.5 million Epsom Handicap (1600m) at Randwick. |
| The five-year-old entire by Spill the Beans charged home under Brenton Avdulla over the concluding stages and hit the line locked together with the Annabel Neasham trained Top Ranked who looked the winner in the straight. The judge took minutes to declare the race result and in the end a margin couldn’t be found and Epsom history was made. Sent out at $16 Ellsberg produced a huge effort considering he was disadvantaged with the compressed weights, carrying just a half kilo less than the higher rated Top Ranked. The dead heat win was a relief after the long wait for co-trainers Sterling Alexiou and Gerald Ryan. “It’s better than the other way,” a proud Ryan said while adding the run today in the Epsom almost didn’t happen. “It was a last minute decision (to run). (At) ten to nine on Wednesday morning we decided to run and well, it’s been good!” “It’s good when you buy the horse as a yearling and bring him along. We’ve been desperate to win a Group One with him, but I had basically given up hope.” “We’d been here three times at the mile and we had been found wanting but he stuck his head out today. He’s so honest!” “It’s our first Group One together (with Alexiou). We had Ellsberg’s father, we bought him (Spill the Beans) as a yearling, we bought him (Ellsberg) as a yearling. We paid a lot of money for him, there are good blokes in the horse with us, a great syndicate.” “I think it’s just three times that he has been out of the first four,” Ryan added. “I wish I had more of them.” It was a feeling of relief also for Ellsberg’s rider Brenton Avdulla when he shared the prize with Hugh Bowman. “Half way up (the straight) I thought Hughie was home and the closer we got to the line I knew I was coming strong and I thought on the post I got him,” Avdulla reported. “But racing is a funny thing.” “When I came back (to scale) I would’ve been shattered if my number didn’t come up and the longer we were here (waiting) we both said to each other ‘I just hope for a dead heat’.” “It’s a Group One race, I only picked the ride up on Wednesday. He wasn’t going to run so we got him in last minute. I didn’t think he was well in at the weight but he was still able to share in a Group One, so it’s amazing.” Ellsberg was bred by Luke Trevanion’s Hillside Downs in Queensland and sold for $50,000 at the 2018 Gold Coast National Weanling Sale through the draft of Kitchwin Hills. He was purchased as weanling by the Segenhoe Stud team and they then presented him at the 2019 Gold Coast Yearling Sale where he sold to Gerald Ryan Racing for $280,000. As it stands Ellsberg boasts a record of seven wins and 10 minor placings and earnings of over $1.5 million. One of two stakes winners for his ill fated sire Spill the Beans, Ellsberg is from a three time winning daughter of Magic Millions 2YO Classic winner General Nediym. Love of Liberty, his dam, was placed in Adelaide before retiring to stud and she has produced the Sunshine Coast placegetter Real it In from just three to race to date. She is a full sister to the Group Three Colonel Reeves Stakes winner Electric General – an earner of over $438,000 a stakes win also achieved in Victoria among seven wins. Earlier on the Randwick card Magic Millions sold juveniles Empire of Japan (Snitzel) and Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar) swept the Group Three Breeders’ Plate and Group Three Gimcrack Stakes respectively. Empire of Japan, a $680,000 son of Ichihara, led home a Magic Millions trifecta clean sweep in the Breeders’. He was purchased by China Horse Club, Newgate Bloodstock and Starlight Racing from the draft of Corumbene Stud. Platinum Jubilee turned in a royal performance to come from last and give Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott a first ever win in the Gimcrack. A half sister to recent Group Three winner Queen of the Ball, Platinum Jubilee was bred by Go Bloodstock and sold through the Newgate Farm draft to Gai, Adrian and Bruce Slade’s Kestrel Thoroughbreds for $600,000. Meanwhile, Private Eye was one of the stars of the Flemington card when he stormed home to win the Group Two Gilgai Stakes for Joe Pride. The proven Group One winner was a $62,500 Adelaide Yearling Sale buy for Pride and Proven Thoroughbreds from the draft of Ambergate Farm, who offered him on behalf of Goodwood Farm. Winner: Ellsberg Breeding: Spill the Beans-Love of Liberty (General Nediym) Breeder: Hillside Downs Race: ATC Epsom Handicap G1 (1600m) Sold for: $50,000 Sale: 2018 Magic Millions Gold Coast National Weanling Sale Vendor: Kitchwin Hills (As Agent) Buyer: Segenhoe Stud Australia Sold for: $280,000 Sale: 2019 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale Vendor: Segenhoe Stud Australia Buyer: Gerald Ryan Racing Earnings: $1,575,000 Owners: Belsin Thoroughbreds, TTI (Mgr: IC Burford), Gleneagles Stud Pty Ltd (Mgr: KJ Wacey), MH Wood, C Moore, Ms TL Arnott, JRM Conroy, TA Clarke, JL Rice, N Amirilayeghi, RA Clarke & K Rice Trainer(s): Gerald Ryan & Sterling Alexiou (Rosehill) |
