Unlucky William Reid Stakes runner-up Fontelina is a chance of backing up in the Saturday’s Group 1 $1m George Ryder Stakes (1500m) at Rosehill.
Fontelina, orange cap, squeezes in between runners to be narrowly beaten by Spirit Of Boom, yellow cap, in William Reid Stakes. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Trainer Anthony Cummings included Fontelina in the eighteen nominations for the weight for age George Ryder Stakes after the five year old was denied his maiden Group 1 win by the narrowest of margins in the $400,000 Hacer Group William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley last Friday night.
Glen Boss, on Fontelina, was held up for a run in the straight before securing a narrow gap at the fifty metre mark to flash home but failed to grab the winner, Spirit Of Boom, in a deceptive photo finish.
Cummings put Fontelina straight on the float back to Sydney and the Randwick trainer said that he had arrived home in great order and hasn’t ruled out a start on Saturday.
“There is potential for it (to run) certainly. I haven’t sat down yet and had a look at the fields,” Cummings told Racing Network.
“But he makes it possible by the way that he has come out of that race.”
Cummings accepted the narrow defeat while Boss and Spirit Of Boom’s rider Michael Rodd are shaking their heads after both thought that Fontelina had got the bob in.
“I wasn’t sure, but ‘Bossy’ said he thought he’d won,” Rodd said.
“There is no worse feeling than to think you’ve won a Group 1 and then the photo shows you haven’t.”
If Fontelina dosen’t run this week in the George Ryder Stakes, Cummings will wait until the Group 1 $2.5m Darley T J Smith Stakes (1200m) at Randwick on April 12 to run the Testa Rosa gelding.
The George Ryder is loaded with class and includes Group 1 winners Appearance and Stream from the Guy Walter stable, Boban, Red Tracer and Sacred Falls from the Chris Waller stable and the Peter Moody trained Fat Al.
Triple Group 1 winner Boban heads the Ladbrokes.com.au George Ryder Stakes market order at $4.20 just ahead of the-inform Appearance at $4.50.
Kiwi three year old El Roca is next in the betting at $8 alongside of Red Tracer followed by Sacred Falls at $10, Toydini at $12, Eurozone at $15 and Fontelina at $18 with Terravista.
