After the excitement of a surprise first up victory at the end of October the mood quickly turned sour for the Gerald Ryan camp with the news promising six year old Ahdashim would be heading straight back to the paddock.

He won first up in the Turner Freeman Handicap over 1100m at Rosehill, a race that would of been relatively innocuous were it not for the horses he beat.

Instead though he muscled out Latin News, Tromso and Group 1 winner Atomic Force creating high hopes for a big summer campaign.

Unfortunately though it will be at least another six months before we see the horse again ruling him out of the 2012 Magic Millions Carnival on the Gold Coast.

“He damaged a ligament behind a pastern and will spend six months in the paddock,” Ryan said of Ahdashim.

“It’s a blow because he has always been such a sound horse and was going so well.

“He had never won first-up before.”

That robs Ryan of a strong player from his Magic Millions team and puts extra pressure on the two year old contingent.

With mass of talent aimed at the juvenile race on the Gold Coast this year the pressure will be high but Ryan does look to have one of the main players.

Amorino has had just the one start in mid October at Randwick but showed enough there to  win the City Tattersall’s Plate by a huge 2.5 lengths.

That made him one of the early spruik horses for the Magic Millions and while since then he’s been somewhat forgotten Ryan says he’s on track to remind people just how good he can be.

“He’s qualified for the Magic Millions Classic so he will be there,” he said.

Joining Amorino on the Gold Coast in January for the Ryan stable will be Top Drop which placed in the Magic Millions Guineas this year as well as Adnocon and Rock Monster which will attack the Magic Millions Maiden Plate.