Super confident jockey Tommy Berry is predicting that he can give Cosmic Endeavour the run of the race in the Group 1 $1m George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill on Saturday.
Cosmic Endeavour and Tommy Berry, above, will be reunited in the George Ryder Stakes at Rosehill. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Berry is back aboard Cosmic Endeavour after James McDonald steered the Gai Waterhouse trained mare to an all the way win in the Group 1 $500,000 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) at Randwick on March 7.
Cosmic Endeavour has drawn barrier four in the fourteen horse field and Berry is confident that he can give her a sweet run in or near the lead.
“I don’t think there will be a heap of pressure in the race and I think she will have the run of the race,” Berry wrote in his Sportsman column today.
“The Japanese horses and Peter Snowden’s Shooting To Win are the ones that make the race interesting but the rest I think she had covered last start and will do the same again.”
Berry is no stranger to the Northern Meteor mare, having ridden her on nine occasions for four wins including a 2014 Brisbane Winter Carnival double with wins in the Group 2 $200,000 VIRBAC Animal Health Dane Ripper Stakes (1400m) and the Group 1 $500,000 Sky Racing Tattersall’s Tiara (1400m), both at Eagle Farm.
“She has always shown us she is a quality mare and she proved that at the end of a long Autumn campaign last year in to the winter where she won a Group 1 at the end of the carnival,” Berry said.
“She took a little while to get fit this preparation after having a bit extra time off and third-up she was spot on.”
The two three-year-olds in the field, Shooting To Win and Kermadec, look the main dangers, as they both tackle weight for age company for the first time.
The blinkers are coming off Shooting To Win who has been beaten as favourite at his last two starts against his own age.
He finished fourth to Hallowed Crown in the Group 2 $200,000 Blackwoods CRC Hobartville Stakes (1400m) at Rosehill on February 21 and then third to the Bart and James Cummings trained colt again in the Group 1 $600,000 Girvan Waugh Randwick Guineas (1600m) at Randwick two weeks later.
Kermadec, one of six Chris Waller runners in the George Ryder Stakes, is returning from Melbourne where he was an unlucky fourth to Wandjina in the Group 1 $500,000 Australian Guineas (1600m) at Flemington on March 7.
Shooting To Win has been installed the favourite again for the George Ryder stakes and is currently marked at $4.80 with Ladbrokes.com.au.
Comic Endeavour is on the second line of betting at $5 just ahead of Kermadec at $6 and the Japanese galloper World Ace at $7 while Criterion and It’s Somewhat are both at $10.
