More Than Ready gelding Ready To Rip has further firmed in his favouritism to take out the Gold Coast Guineas this Saturday after the Andrew Williamson-trained Caloundra galloper came up trumps with the inside running from barrier one.

The $125,000 Group 3 Gold Coast Guineas (1200m) this year attracted a full field of 16 starters plus five emergencies, the high class hopefuls looking to kick start a successful Brisbane Winter Racing Carnival campaign with a win in one of the Gold Coast’s only Group race features.

Ready To Rip, who won the $100,000 Winning Edge Mick Dittman Plate (1000m) first-up for the season on April 23 at Flemington, has the draw and form to be an ultra competitive force on way to Group 1 glory in Brisbane.

Williamson has nominated his stable forerunner for the $1 million Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm on June 11 and is hoping a win on Saturday will help secure their spot in the lucrative sprint showdown.

Currently Ready To Rip sits as a $21 chance in the early Stradbroke markets that are lead by the brilliant Black Caviar at $4.40 despite Moody’s unbeaten mare being a likely non-starter.

If not the Stradbroke, Ready To Rip will race in the Group 2 Queensland Guineas (1600m) at Eagle Farm on the same day.

Bought for just $55,000 as a yearling at the 2009 Magic Millions Sale, Ready To Rip has raced six times and boasts an excellent record of four wins and a minor placing already winning back more than twice his purchase price with $167,350 in career earnings to date.

Jockey Damien Browne, aboard for the Mick Dittman win, will maintain his association with the gun three-year-old in the Gold Coast Guineas.

After the win at Eagle Farm Browne was full of praise for Ready To Rip and is confident he can ride him to victory again on Saturday.

“It was a terrific win,” Browne said of the Mick Dittman.

“There were a couple of 1000 metre specialists that were better than him over the distance but he picked them up and won easily (one length).”

In a blow for Browne, if Ready To Rip does make it all the way to the Stradbroke, he would be unable to partner the horse due to the gelding’s allocated with.

“I’m not sure but I doubt he’ll go for the Stradbroke,” Brown said.

“It’s probably a year too early for him to take on older horses in the Stradbroke.

“He’ll definitely be a better proposition and a lot stronger next year.

“He’s got a terrific temperament and is a natural racehorse.

“He gives me the feeling of a Group One horse.”

The only thing going against Ready To Rip heading towards the Queensland Guineas according to Browne is perhaps his ability to handle the mile.

“Everything you throw at him he does with ease,” Browne said.

“But we’ll see how he goes each run and hopefully he’ll run 1600 metres this preparation.”

Trainer Williamson said that Ready To Rips’s last-start win was his biggest achievement from a decade as a trainer.

“The Mick Dittman Plate has been my biggest win so far,” he said.

“Before that one of my best races was when I ran third with a horse called Past Blast behind China Amber in the Dane Ripper Handicap (in 2001) when I first started off.”

Williamson is also confident with Ready To Rip’s chances in the Gold Coast Guineas and thinks he is the deserved favourite.

“He’s going terrific,” Williamson said of Ready To Rip.

“He pulled up a bit muscle sore after the Mick Dittman but I got the physio to him and he’s right now.”

Ready To Rip currently sits at the top of the Guineas odds paying $3.80.

The next shortest-priced contender is Tony Gollan’s Toowoomba galloper Spirit Of Boom coming off a third in the Mick Dittman at $7 followed by second emergency and Mick Dittman runner-up Liesele at $7.50.

The Gold Coast Guineas will run as Race 8 on Saturday, jump time scheduled for 4:30pm (AEST).

2011 Contour Consulting Engineers Gold Coast Guineas Field & Barriers