Facile heads dual-pronged assault on Inglis Nursery for Trapeze Artist
Rosehill winner Disneck will also run for the Widden Stud stallion who is out to kick-start his first season
Widden sire Trapeze Artist (Snitzel) has a strong dual chance of kick-starting his first season in one of the country’s major early two-year-old races in today’s Inglis Nursery (RL, 1000m) at Randwick, headed by the first foal out of a mare described by her trainer as a “nightmare”.
Facile, whose co-trainer Gerald Ryan prepared both the sire and the talented but unruly dam I Like It Easy (Pierro), dominates the market for her debut following two commanding barrier trial victories.
And Bjorn Baker’s colt Disneck – Trapeze Artist’s first winner amongst five starters so far after scoring second-up at Rosehill two weeks ago – is vying for second favouritism in the 11-runner scamper.
Facile, to be ridden by last season’s Golden Slipper (Gr 1, 1200m) winner Brenton Avdulla, was the second-top priced Trapeze Artist yearling at this year’s Easter sale, knocked down to Ryan and partner Sterling Alexiou for $420,000.
She stepped out for a first barrier trial over 801 metres at Warwick Farm on November 18 and blitzed her seven rivals by four and a half lengths in a slick 46.46 seconds on a Soft 5 track – the only sub 47-second time from five juvenile heats that morning.
The filly led throughout again over 898 metres on a Canterbury Soft 6 on November 29, beating earlier Gimcrack Stakes (Gr 3, 1000m) winner Platinum Jubilee (Zoustar) by three and a half lengths in 54.34 seconds – the fastest time among seven two-year-old trials on the day, and set in a four-runner field.
The lightly framed speedster was last night at odds-on for the Nursery – a $500,000 race offering its winner a pre-Christmas prize–money boon helping shore up a Slipper berth next autumn. But while Ryan was impressed – indeed pleasantly surprised – with her trials, the veteran Rosehill-based trainer knows nothing is proven until a juvenile’s first raceday.
“She won her trials very well but with two-year-olds you just never know until you put them out on raceday,” Ryan told ANZ Bloodstock News.
“She bounced and found the bunny, had the rail to guide her, and she’s done alright since. But you like to see them do it on raceday before you say anything. You see plenty of good triallers who don’t do it on raceday.
“She surprised me when she went to the trials the first time and did what she did, because she hasn’t really had much education at home. I haven’t worked her with anything here at home – we’ve just been poking along and looking after her. We haven’t had to do much with her, because she’s only a baby and doesn’t carry a lot of condition.”
Bred by Trapeze Artist’s owner Bert Vieira – who rejected a $36 million offer to keep the four-time Group 1 winner as a sire – she’s the first foal out of I Like It Easy, who won two out of eight for Ryan, including Randwick’s Reginald Allen Quality (Listed, 1400m) for three-year-old fillies in 2018.
Facile, who races in the Aquis colours of Tony Fung, appears to have inherited many things from her dam. Thankfully, temperament isn’t one of them.
“She’s the spitting image of her mother,” Ryan said. “Same colour, same build. She’s nothing startling to look at, but I saw her at the sale and she looked a nice, athletic filly. I do like these light little fillies who aren’t big and heavy, who are athletic and move well.
“She can get a little bit hot, but overall, it’s Trapeze Artist’s nature that’s coming out in her, because her mother was a handful. She had the worst attitude of any filly I trained. She was a nightmare.
“She used to rear and spin around, get rid of her riders. She was hard work. I think the races she won, she got things run to suit, found the front and was well ridden. After she won the stakes race, Bert said ‘Where are we going to go now?’ I said, ‘Retire her – she’s hard work’.”
She in fact had three more, unplaced, runs before being sent to the breeding barn by Vieira. She now has a yearling full sister to Facile, and was last month covered by Trapeze Artist a third time.
Ryan said he had around nine two-year-olds by his former sprinting star, who “leaves all types, like his dad Snitzel does”. He’s impressed with what he’s seen so far, though adding they’re not the earliest of runners.
“I was given a few to train by breeders and we bought some ourselves. I like them, but they’re not early-going two-year-olds. Trapeze Artist wasn’t. He didn’t race til the end of February, and he got better as he got older,” Ryan said of the now eight-year-old, who won the Black Opal Stakes (Gr 3, 1200m) before a sixth in She Will Reign’s (Manhattan Rain) Golden Slipper. “It depends how they’re mated, but I’ve found they’re not mad-running two-year-olds.”
Disneck, to be ridden by Rachel King, is the third foal of imported US mare Lindisfarne (City Zip), who won a Listed race over 1200 metres at Laurel in 2015. Bred by Phoenix Thoroughbreds, he was a $200,000 purchase by Baker and Clarke Bloodstock at Inglis Classic, Disneck laboured into eighth first-up in Rosehill’s Golden Gift (1100m) but produced a powerhouse finish to win over the same course and distance at his most recent outing.
He was last night contesting second-favouritism with Blanc De Blanc (I Am Invincible), a $360,000 Classic purchase by James Harron Bloodstock and trainer Michael Freedman out of Another Sunday (Redoute’s Choice), a three-quarter sister to stakes-winning outstanding sire Not A Single Doubt , and Group 1-winner King’s Legacy.
Blanc De Blanc won an 850-metre Kensington barrier trial by three lengths before scoring on debut by a neck in a 900-metre dash at Newcastle on November 27. While she only beat three rivals, Freedman was impressed after she sat second outside the leader and recorded quick times.
“It was only a small field but they ran pretty quick sectionals,” the trainer told ANZ Bloodstock News. “The last 600 was sub-33 seconds [32.93], which is pretty slick. They ran a quicker last 600 [metres] than the open maiden that day, so I think that was a good effort, and she seems to have come on well from the run.”
Freedman was less encouraged by Blanc De Blanc drawing the outside barrier for Tommy Berry.
“We’ve got to watch and hope, really. There’s only one turn but whenever you draw the outside over 1000 metres in these two-year-old races, it does make it tough,” he said of a filly he felt would develop well on seeing her at the sales.
“She looked a little bit backward and immature at the sale but like she could furnish over the next few months. She’s a lot more of the finished article now, so she’s definitely gone the right way.”
Master juvenile trainer Gary Portelli saddles two Nursery runners: Tango Fever (More Than Ready), an unlucky head second of five to odds-on favourite Mighty (Spirit Of Boom) in a metro-class two-year-old race over 1100 metres at the Gold Coast on debut; and Mercury Rose (Pariah), who was fourth of six first-up at Warwick Farm on a Heavy 8 on October 12.
“Tango Fever ran a great second on debut, when she was blocked in the straight and probably would’ve won if she’d got out earlier,” Portelli said. “She’s been working beautifully since and I think she’ll run well.
“Mercury Rose has had a little let-up since her first run and she’s been aimed at this race. She’s been working well too so I’m hoping she can run well.”