Connections Eye Everest with Wild Ruler

The considerable allure and lure of $15 million sprint The Everest is set to ensure outstanding Easter colt Wild Ruler (Snitzel-Gypsy Robin, by Daaher) races on for at least one more season and, on the strength of his weekend Arrowfield Sprint win at Randwick, it’s easy to see why. Trapped three-deep on a hot speed in the $1 million feature for 3YOs, Wild Ruler held off a surge of rivals to prove victorious. A $525,000 Easter buy from breeders Kia Ora Stud for Newgate Farm, China Horse Club and WinStar, Wild Ruler is raced by some of the industry’s most prominent powerbrokers, with the purchasers teaming up with the likes of Sir Owen Glenn’s Go Bloodstock Australia, Gary Diamond’s G1g Racing & Breeding, Nick Vass, Glenlogan Park, Wilf Mula’s Aston Bloodstock and Steve Grant among others. His latest success continued a strong campaign for the Peter and Paul Snowden-trained Wild Ruler, which began with an effortless win in the Listed Fireball before a luckless run in the Gr1 The Galaxy. “That was a Group 2 race in name today but a Group 1 race in stature and quality of contestants,’’ an overjoyed Henry Field from Newgate said. “He was phenomenal (when finishing third) in the Coolmore and it’s nice to win the Arrowfield.’’ Field advised, “At this stage he will race on for another season at least and see where we can end up with him. A race like The Everest would be ideal for him, a tough 1200m here at Randwick, he’s absolutely an Everest horse so the focus will head that way now.’’ Following the Arrowfield Sprint, Wild Ruler firmed into $17 for The Everest – to be run at Randwick on October 16.

Wild Ruler will be kept in work (pic: Steve Hart)