Stradbroke Aims for Ayrton

Unbeaten 3YO gelding Ayrton (Iffraaj-Odessa, by Falkirk) will be aimed at the Gr1 Stradbroke Handicap in Brisbane, reports racing.com. "He hasn't got a rating to take him anywhere so, I think you'll find that he races in Melbourne and then we take him to Queensland and run in some races up there, give him a winter working holiday and give him a little breather and then we've got time to bring him down for the spring," co-trainer Mick Price told the Moody On The Mic podcast. "It's too long to just spell him all that time. He's a perfectly sound horse, he's a Kiwi and he's going to put on weight and furnish out a bit." Ayrton has had just the two starts in December 2020, winning at Bendigo over 1300m, then at Caulfield over 1400m on Boxing Day. "He doesn't seem like I want to make a 1200m horse out of him so I think 1400m to a mile would be perfect and he might even get further than that, in which case we'll find out," said Price. Ayrton was offered at the 2019 New Zealand Bloodstock National Yearling Sale by Leanach Lodge, but was passed in and is now owned by Roll The Dice Racing who also own stablemate and Golden Slipper favourite Profiteer (Capitalist-Athena Lass, by Snitzel).