Brilliant colt Menari cemented favouritism for the Group 1 $1m De Bortoli Wines Golden Rose (1400m) at Rosehili in a fortnight with an electrifying win in the Group 2 $200,000 The Run To The Rose (1200m) at Rosehill today.
Menari, above, cemented favouritism for the Golden Rose with his win in The Run To The Rose at Rosehill. Photo by Steve Hart.
Trainer Gerald Ryan has no worries about Menari stepping up to the 1400m of the Golden Rose after proving way dominant against the rest of the three year olds today.
“This horse is a fair dinkum genuine horse,” Ryan said.
“He will go to 1400m, a Group 1 $1 million three year old race on your home track.”
Ryan also can see Menari improving over the next two weeks in the build up to the Golden Rose.
“He will improve in fitness, but I wouldn’t say length wise,” Ryan said.
“I know the horses has improvement in him, four weeks in between runs, he hasn’t had a trial. We have just been ticking him over.”
Winning jockey Josh Parr had Menrai ($2.30 favourite) quickly into stride behind the leader Perast ($101) and Ryan knew then that the Snitzel colt would relax and be hard to beat.
“Once he got three quarters of a length back off the other horse I knew he would relax,” Ryan said.
The Peter and Paul Snowden trained Pariah ($3.80) tried to go with Menari over the final 300m but couldn’t match it with the winner in the run to the line to fill the runner’s up stall with Perast sticking on for third.
