Talented speedster Rubick has returned from the spelling paddock and has begun preparations for what is set to be an extensive 2014 Spring Racing Carnival campaign.
Rubick will return to racing in the San Domenico Stakes during the 2014 Spring Racing Carnival. Photo by: Race Horse Photos Australia
Rubick stamped himself as a horse to watch when he ran a blistering time to win a barrier trial at Rosehill Gardens on January 7 by seven and a half lengths and made his racing debut with a comfortable win in the TAB Iphone App Plate (1000m) at Royal Randwick on January 25.
The Encosta De Lago colt stamped himself as a favourite for the Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) with a tough win in the Group 3 Blue Diamond Prelude (1100m) at Caulfield on February 8, but finished a disappointing fourth in the Group 1 event at Caulfield a fortnight later.
Trainer Gerald Ryan sent Rubick straight to the spelling paddock following his Blue Diamond Stakes defeat and told Racing Ahead this morning that the rising three-year-old has been back at his Rosehill Gardens stable for two weeks.
“He looks well and has been back in the stable for two weeks,” Ryan said.
“He has grown, he has lengthened and he is better through the shoulders now than he was as a two-year-old.
“He has a great attitude and I like the way that he is at the moment.”
Ryan has already mapped out a 2014 Spring Racing Carnival path for Rubick and he confirmed that the colt will be set for a sprinting campaign; with the majority of his races starts to be run over 1200 metres.
The veteran trainer said that Rubick will make his return to the races in the Group 3 San Domenico Stakes (1100m) at Rosehill Gardens in August before heading to Melbourne where he will be aimed at the Group 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on Victoria Derby Day.
“At this stage we thought that we would run first-up in the San Domenico and then go to Melbourne and run in the Danehill Stakes where we will give him an experience up the straight,”
“Then he will probably have a freshen-up and we will run him in either the Schillaci Stakes or the Blue Sapphire at Caulfield and that will serve him over for three weeks into the Coolmore.
“If he shows in the Danehill that he doesn’t appreciate the straight then we won’t go there and we will find something else.”
Coolmore Stud purchased a share of Rubick before he ran in the Blue Diamond Prelude and believes that the stallion prospect is capable of replacing his father Encosta De Lago when he retires.
