Kembla Grange preview: Ryan chasing a fruitful day on Tuesday

Trainer Blake Ryan heads to Kembla Grange on Tuesday with the lightly-raced and talented Strawberry Impact and stable newcomer All Black ready and able to perform.

Blake Ryan

TRAINER Blake Ryan has ambitions of Midways and maybe more with the stable’s lightly-raced three-year-old Strawberry Impact which, all things being equal, could have had a hat-trick ahead of Tuesday’s Kembla mission.

Ryan’s gelding has put together an impressive resume in a short time, winning his maiden (at Kembla) in convincing fashion.

He followed that up with a closing second in a 1400m Benchmark 64 at Newcastle five weeks later when beaten by the racing’s barest possible margin.

FIELDS AND FORM KEMBLA ON TUESDAY

“He’s had a long first preparation, a couple of his runs have been spaced, and he is still eating and is happy and bright so we’ll go to the races again with him,’’ Ryan said.

“Looking at his run the other day, it looks like he wants a mile, even further.

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“The one thing I do like about him - I get a sectional report for every runner - and every start he’s had, he’s been the fastest last furlong in the race so it shows he is going through the line.

“He should get further off that alone.

“He’s drawn well again, Chad (Lever) rides him really well so if the same horse turns up that has been going to the races, he’s going to be competitive,’’ said Ryan.

“I was happy to go to a Benchmark 68 on Tuesday because I basically treated him like he won the other day, because it was a half a bob, and that’s where he would have gone anyway but this way, he just hasn’t got the full (weight) penalty.”

Strawberry Impact was sold for $100,000 at the 2023 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.

The Lime Country bred (then) colt was one of 116 foals that made up the first crop of Yulong Stud resident stallion, Pierata.

Strawberry Impact was also the first foal of his dam, Girandola.

An unraced daughter of Medaglia D’oro, Girandola, is a half-sister to Co-Champion 2YO Colt in Australian, Invader, as well as the Hong Kong star sprinter Not Listenin’tome.

“If he wins on Tuesday and pulls up well like can go again, he will go to the Midway on Scone stand-alone day,’’ Ryan said.

“The owner is happy for me to actually have a throw at the stumps if he is going well when the right race comes along so I wouldn’t be surprised if he ended up in a decent race sooner or later.

Jockey Chad Lever

“He’s a nice horse, he is one of my better ones anyway.”

Strawberry Impact will have company on the float from Hawkesbury to Kembla on Tuesday from a relatively new stablemate named All Black which runs out in the last race on the card.

The Blueblood Thoroughbreds owned son of Snitzel never got a crack at his Ryan-stable debut at Wyong last month finishing a misleading ninth of 11.

“It’s hard because he wasn’t fully tested the other day,” Ryan said.

“He didn’t even get a tap around the bum. I would have loved to have been able to see him get that and then at least you’d know where he actually sat.

“I think the soft tracks does help him a lot.

“The one thing different we have been able to do, which is why he was sent to me by Bluebloods, Nathan (Doyle) just said he wasn’t really coping with stable life at Newcastle so we train him out of a yard here.

“He is outside all the time and he’s happy and we don’t annoy him too much.”

Originally published as Kembla Grange preview: Ryan chasing a fruitful day on Tuesday