Older stallions that love to race are so on trend right now.
Six-year-old entire Gold Trip won the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday – now five-year-old stallion Ellsberg will look to keep the good times going for the old boys in Saturday’s $2m Five Diamonds (1800m) at Rosehill.
Five Diamonds favourite Ellsberg on his best behaviour on Friday.Credit:Nikki Short
In an era where stallions are rushed off to stud the minute they win a major race, Ellsberg’s thirst for winning races is on par with his interest in the opposite sex.
While trainer Gerald Ryan concedes he has to be mindful of stabling fillies and mares next to Ellsberg, you would not meet a more placid horse.
“Lonhro raced until he was a six as a stallion, and Fiorente won the Melbourne Cup as a six-year-old stallion,” said Ryan, a trainer who has always had a keen interest in the breeding side of the industry.
“This horse is very quiet and placid. He’ll get to the races, hop off the float and he roars and sings out and rears, then he puts his head down and walks around the rest of the day. He does it every time.
Ellsberg has enjoyed plenty of success in the last 12 months.Credit:Nikki Short
“All you have to do is keep them happy. When they announced this race back in the autumn, we were always going to aim him at it. Now we’ve done it. This horse was never gelded because he doesn’t need gelding.
“He’s won a group 1, so he’ll find a [stud] home somewhere.”
Ellsberg finished in a dead heat with Top Ranked in the Epsom, then came out and won the Five Diamonds Prelude with authority, which included subsequent Big Dance winner Rustic Steel.
Take a peek back a little further through his form and Ellsberg was third to Cascadian and Tofane in the All Aged Stakes in the autumn, and 12 months prior to that beat Private Eye in the South Pacific Classic.
Sterling Alexiou and Gerald Ryan will send Ellsberg out at Rosehill.Credit:Getty
It was after the win in the South Pacific Classic that the current owners of Ellsberg bought out Aquis Farm’s 50 per cent stake in the horse for $500,000. There was a deal on the table from Hong Kong for $1m, but the owners were keen to keep racing the son of Spill The Beans.
It ended up proving a masterstroke because Ellsberg has won more than $1.1m in prizemoney in his past two starts, with Saturday’s purse $1.155m to the winner.
“He’s up to the 1800m, he’s in form, he’s on his home track and it’s only his fifth run this preparation – he’s been looked after and only ever had four or five runs every preparation,” said Ryan, when asked why Ellsberg can win.
“It will be up to the owners what they want to do next year. There’s no reason he can’t keep racing as a six-year-old while he’s still in the frame of mind he is.”
Ellsberg is the $2.40 favourite with TAB with Tommy Berry to ride. Rustic Steel is already scratched from the race with Kris Lees happy to bypass the final Sydney race that draws an unofficial curtain on the spring carnival.
There has been slightly more money in the past 24 hours for the $4.80 second favourite Laws Of Indices, who was the Toorak Handicap runner-up before finishing back in the field in the Cox Plate but next to Melbourne Cup winner Gold Trip at his past two starts.
“There are concentrating on the top three in the Five Diamonds market with some money around for Ayrton, but to my mind, there are questions about all of them,” TAB’s Glenn Munsie said.
“Ellsberg has to be a question at getting the 1800m, while Laws Of Indices might not handle the hard track. Ayrton has been thereabouts, but he has a lot of ground to make up from [his fourth in] the prelude of this race, which probably brings you back to the favourite.”
Sports news, results and expert commentary. Sign up for our Sport newsletter.
