Star three-year-old targeting Stradbroke Handicap
Unbeaten three-year-old Ayrton (Iffraaj) has arrived in Brisbane ahead of his tilt at the Stradbroke Handicap (Gr 1, 1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 12.
Leigh Saville, from Roll The Dice Racing, reported the unbeaten gelding had settled into Eagle Farm, where he completed some light morning work under the watchful eye of co-trainer Mick Price.
With a cloud over air travel, connections made the decision to float the son of Iffraaj (Zafonic) from Melbourne, via Warwick Farm, with the trip taking almost 20 hours.
But Saville said early indications are that the Stradbroke favourite has taken no ill effect from the experience.
"He's arrived today, his temperature is good, he had a stretch of the legs this morning and Mick is pretty happy with him," Saville told Racing.com.
"He'll just monitor him over the next day or two and make sure he's acclimatising alright but he didn't have to travel in the heat of summer so I don't think there will be any issues.
The gelding will run in the Fred Best Classic (Gr 3, 1400m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday week and he will be ridden by Jamie Kah, but given his featherweight of 49.5kg in the Group 1, Saville and his owners were forced to look for a replacement and landed on Sydney jockey Rachel King earlier this week.
"He's a horse that can get a bit keen in his races and Jamie has ridden him from the start, she's ridden him really well and managed to use her soft hands and been really kind on him," he said.
"When it became apparent that she couldn't make the weight at 49.5kg, it made us have a good think about what our options were with some of the lightweight jockeys.
"There were plenty putting their hand up, but Rachel King was certainly someone that was already on our radar.
"We did a lot of research and spoke to quite a few of the Sydney trainers, as well as Deane Lester, and the feedback around Rachel was overwhelmingly positive.
"She's a natural lightweight jockey with some really nice, soft hands and she rates horses well in front, so she was a good fit for us.
"We've watched her from afar - she rode Anamoe to beat Profiteer in Sydney - she's a genuine Group 1 rider and her results in Sydney are amazing."
