Red Excitement continues thrilling run
It has taken five seasons of racing for trainer Gerald Ryan to try Red Excitement over a staying trip but his Listed Gosford Gold Cup win is further proof the seven-year-old has turned over a new leaf.
Aside from one start over 1900m as a three-year-old when trained by Neville Layt, Red Excitement had not raced over more than 1600m until his dominant Group Three Summer Cup win (2000m) at Randwick on Boxing Day.
At Gosford on Friday he continued the theme, leading all the way to score an easy win over 2100m.
The horse is in rare form and so is his jockey Adam Hyeronimus who has booted home six winners from his past 15 rides.
“He jumps out and does it all himself,” Hyeronimus said.
“He’s a very strong horse.
“It’s a massive win given he’s obviously never been over this distance and carried the top weight.”
Despite drifting from $2.70 to $3.70 before the race, Red Excitement never looked like getting beaten.
Villiers Stakes winner Sense Of Occasion ($3.50 fav) ran on well to finish second and the Joe Pride-trained Destiny’s Kiss ($5) finished third with jockey Josh Parr unable to snare another hometown Cup.
But Pride and Parr were not denied a feature win with Kuro ($6) claiming the Listed Takeover Target Stakes (1200m).
Third placegetter and stablemate Ball Of Muscle was the $3.80 favourite and loomed as the winner on the turn, but Kuro ran over the top to score by a length from His Majesty ($6.50).
“I thought he might have had it on the corner, Ball Of Muscle. It’s been a bit of his pattern lately the last 100 metres he doesn’t really find the line,” Pride said.
“Kuro was really strong through the line and generally those horses win races.”
It was Kuro’s second stakes win in three starts and Pride said he was confident there was another black-type victory in the horse.