Lightning set for two strikes and out
Chain Of Lightning, the tough winner of the TJ Smith Stakes, has earned a golden ticket to Royal Ascot but prominent owner-breeder Stuart Ramsey has revealed that he will give someone else the chance to race his gun mare on the world stage.
Ramsey plans to sell his Group 1-winning talent and leading contender for Saturday’s All Aged Stakes at the end of her career-best preparation next month.
The Peter Moody and Katherine Coleman-trained mare was a shock winner of the TJ Smith Stakes at Randwick.
The performance has led to the mare being invited to the Royal Ascot Carnival where she would contest the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes, a race Moody won with champion sprinter Black Caviar in 2022.
But Ramsey will put his talented daughter of Fighting Sun through the ring at next month’s Magic Millions Broodmare Sale on the Gold Coast before then.
“She will still be sold, we will have her all ready to go and anyone around the world can bid on her if they want to run her at Royal Ascot,” he said. “I’d like to keep her but it’s what we always do.
“We sold Champagne Cuddles for the same reason.
“You can keep them but insurance alone, $150,000$160,000 a year, and then five years on service and vet fees and everything else.
“I have got six kids still alive and 14 grandkids so that’s why we did it in the first place, to provide.”
Ramsey was speaking from his cattle farm, Flodden Hills Station, situated an hour west of Jundah in outback Queensland.
But he’s likely to return to Sydney this weekend with Chain Of Lightning set to line up in Saturday’s Group 1 $1.5m All Aged Stakes
(1400m) at Randwick if she gets suitable conditions.
“She actually likes 1400m better than 1200m so we are pretty confident going into the weekend,” Ramsey said.
Chain Of Lightning is $8 with TAB for the race, with Chris Waller’s mare Espiona ($3.50 fav) shading the Annabel Neasham-trained
Sunshine In Paris ($4.50).