Gerald Ryan will head to Randwick on Tuesday knowing he is a chance of winning the inaugural Big Dance with Cisco Bay, but confident Steely can get the chocolates in the Little Dance.
The Goulburn Cup runner-up from last year is the clear Little Dance favourite and Ryan smiled talking about Steely.
“Sometimes getting beaten can be a good thing,” he said of Steely. “He gets into the Little Dance because he was second, where he is a much better chance than he would have been in the Big Dance.
“He has had two runs on wet tracks, which he doesn’t particularly like, and they have been all right.
“The good thing for him is it looks like we are going to get firm ground for him on Tuesday.
“Once this race was announced, we have been working towards this day because we knew he would get a run in one of two races. I’m pretty happy where he is going into Tuesday.”
Steely is the favourite for the Little Dance after a year of waiting for his chance in the race. Credit:Getty
Punters agree with Ryan’s assessment backing Steely from $5 into a solid top pick at $4.80 in front of Ita, Dream Runner and Solar Apex.
“They’re going to be tough races to win because everyone has the same idea of peaking their horses for this day,” Ryan said. “They will be very good races.”
Ryan also has Cisco Bay as one of the Big Dance chances after the eight-year-old gelding won his way into the $2 million race by winning the Wildcard a fortnight ago.
“He is just a tough old horse that doesn’t know how to run a bad race,” Ryan said. “When he gets into form he holds it and I would expect him to run well, particularly on a big track like Randwick.
“He will really like the pressure that a big field brings into a race over the Randwick mile and he will be charging home late.”
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