Ellsberg on trial for Magic Millions trip

Wednesday 2 December 2020, 2:17pm

A start in the Magic Millions Guineas will be on the line for promising three-year-old Ellsberg when he lines up for just his fourth start at Rosehill.

After winning on debut at Warwick Farm last month, Ellsberg has notched successive placings, including a third in the Group Three Spring Stakes at Newcastle.

He will tackle the Precise Air Handicap (1500m) at his home track on Saturday and co-trainer Gerald Ryan says he needs to win to book his passage to the Gold Coast.

"He is a Magic Millions horse, whether he goes there or not we'll decide after Saturday," Ryan said.

"But he would have to win on Saturday to get in.

"He has always shown me ability and he's been given time."

Ellsberg is majority-owned by Aquis Farm which stood his sire Spill The Beans, who died prematurely after a promising start at stud.

Ryan trained Spill The Beans to win three Group races, including the 2016 Eskimo Prince Stakes in which he defeated subsequent Group One winner Le Romain.

The stable also has loftier ambitions for Cultural Amnesia and Zoumist who clash in the opening race.

Cultural Amnesia is also nominated for the Kensington meeting on Friday but is likely to head to Rosehill.

He had form around stakes performers Thermosphere and Rock My Wand as a juvenile, however, after resuming with a lacklustre performance at the provincials in August, Ryan moved swiftly to make a change.

"He decided he was a colt and he didn't want to play. He is no longer a colt," Ryan said.

After being gelded, Cultural Amnesia returned with a win at Rosehill and Ryan is hoping he can continue to go through the grades.

"If he found some good form during the summer it would be too late for the autumn but you might think about Queensland with him," he said.

The stable also has a healthy opinion of Zoumist, who showed ability at her initial preparation which included a luckless fifth to subsequent Coolmore Stud Stakes winner September Run.

She resumed with a strong win at Gosford when she had to change course in the straight and scored with something in hand.

"She has taken a little bit of time but she is a nice filly," Ryan said.

"She overcame difficulties to win the other day. I know this is a step up in grade but bigger track, stepping up to 1300 metres, still fresh, she can run a race."

If Zoumist can continue to develop, Ryan and co-trainer Sterling Alexiou will look at targeting some black-type fillies' races in the autumn.

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »