Beyond Ready set for tough test on Alice Springs return
After a highly successful three-year-old campaign in the NT last season, the Kevin Lamprecht-trained Beyond Ready returns on Saturday in Alice Springs.
The Red Centre’s Three-Year-Old of the Year for 2024 lines up at Pioneer Park in open class over 1100m with Darwin jockey Aaron Sweeney on board.
The four-year-old will have his hands full matching Lisa Whittle’s O’Tycoon, Ray Viney’s Kickatorp, and Terry Gillett’s Supreme Attraction and Kangaroo Court.
Dick Leech’s Write Your Name, who won the Alice Springs Cup and Darwin Cup in 2023, completes the field as the six runners prepare for the Alice Springs Cup Carnival starting next month.
Beyond Ready debuted in the NT in February 2024 after five starts in Victoria for a win and a third for Cranbourne trainers Robbie Griffiths and Mathew de Kock.
A win over 1200m and a third over 1400m in his first two starts for Lamprecht was followed by a second in the NT Guineas (1600m) before belting fellow three-year-olds by 6.3 lengths over 1200m on Alice Springs Cup Day in early April.
It was then off to the Top End, where the chestnut finished second in his own age group over 1200m in June before overcoming a red-hot three-year-old field over 1200m in July during the Darwin Cup Carnival.
“Beyond Ready is a nice young horse who has been given plenty of time off by Kevin,” said Greg Aldam, a close friend of Kevin and Robyn Lamprecht who has part-owned horses with the couple since the late 1990s.
“He was very good last preparation – he is a promising type and he could have a bright future in the NT as a sprinter.
“Knowing Kevin as well as I do, Beyond Ready will need a nice hit out on Saturday against what looks to be an excellent race where some top quality sprinters are engaged.
“He’ll probably need the run, but he won’t cover too much ground from the inside gate.
“He should be competitive, especially with 55kg, and will only improve in coming weeks.
“Apart from the Pioneer Sprint during Carnival, there’s also The Soldier Lightning, so they won’t hold back on Saturday.”
O’Tycoon has won three of his past four starts and was an early $1.90 favourite with online bookmakers, while Kangaroo Court returns after winning three straight at the end of 2024.
Supreme Attraction, a solid performer in Alice over the years, is back after a last-start fourth in the $100,000 Pioneer Sprint (1200m) last April — a race he won the previous year.
Kickatorp, sidelined since October, was third in last year’s Pioneer Sprint before posting two wins, a second and a third.
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