There is a sense of déjà vu about the belated decision to head to the Group 1 Epsom Handicap at Randwick with Arctic Glamour, two years after her trainers made a similarly late call to run Ellsberg.
Co-conditioner Gerald Ryan revealed the Epsom had only firmed on their radar over the past couple of weeks and for many of the same reasons that it did with Ellsberg, who dead-heated for first in 2022.
Next month’s The Invitation (1400m) at Randwick on October 26 is Arctic Glamour’s primary goal but it would have meant either going into the race with a month between runs or heading three weeks into the Angst Stakes (1600m) then backing up seven days later.
With a featherweight of 50kg in Saturday’s mile handicap, Ryan and training partner Sterling Alexiou decided it was worth rolling the dice.
“We only started thinking about it two weeks ago,” Ryan said.
“She has been competitive in these races. She meets Gai Waterhouse’s horse (favourite Royal Patronage) five kilos better for finishing two-and-a-half lengths behind it in the Tramway (Stakes). She will run well.
“She is honest, she has a go, and she might be looking for the 1600 metres now.”
Ryan and Alexiou only decided to run Ellsberg when that year’s Epsom field fell away on the morning of acceptances and like Arctic Glamour, he was chasing a longer-term goal of the Five Diamonds, which he also won.
The Epsom was the first time they had run him on a seven-day back-up and that will be the case with the mare.
The biggest query over Artic Glamour is her record at the distance, the four-year-old having been tested at 1600m four times and failed to place.
However, Ryan said there were genuine excuses each time, including in the Thousand Guineas when she was shuffled back mid-race and lost her position before making late ground, and at her most recent mile appearance in the Queen Of The Turf Stakes when she had reached the end of her campaign.
“I’ve always thought she’d run a mile,” Ryan said.
“Her half-brother won a couple of stakes races over 2200-metres, she is out of a Galileo mare and by Frosted.
“She is a lot bigger and stronger now than what she was a three-year-old filly.”
Arctic Glamour was a $23 chance for the Epsom (1600m) on Wednesday with Royal Patronage a $5.50 favourite in an open betting race.
