Ryan’s Red Letter day

LIGHTLY-raced mare Red Letter Lady looks set for a big campaign after scoring an impressive first-up victory in a Benchmark 66 handicap over 1150m in Devonport on Sunday.

The Bill Ryan-trained mare had not raced since finishing near last in the 3YO & 4YO Tasmanian Magic Millions Classic in February.

But two trials against the state’s two best mares Mystic Journey and Still a Star had the five-year-old primed for a first-up win.

“She trialled we’ll against the state’s two best mares in Mystic Journey and Still a Star leading up to this race, so you would have thought that she’d be very competitive and that’s how it played out,” Ryan said.

“This mare is only a class three horse, but I expect her to progress far enough this prep to be competitive enough to tackle the feature mares’ races during the summer carnival.”

Ryan expects to step the mare through the grades and hopefully head to races such as the weight Bow Mistress and the Vamos Stakes.

“She has been quite a handful all the way through

because she is an asthmatic and spends a lot of time on a nebulizer and this time of the year is the worst with the pollen count extremely high.

“But we are able to manage her issues and if she progresses

as I hope she will, then there is a good race in her this time in.”

Ryan was pleased with his top mare Still a Star, which opened her account for the season with a game third in

the Group 2 Let’s Elope Stakes over 1400m at Flemington on Saturday, in which champion Tasmanian mare Mystic Journey also was having her first start for the season.

“I was absolutely thrilled with my mare’s effort, and it was also such a thrill to see the state’s two best mares going head-to-head down the Flemington straight, with Mystic Journey finishing a great second.

“It would have been better had they both finished ahead of the winner (Turaath), but it was still good all the same.”

Still a Star returns home tonight, as does Mystic Journey, with Still a Star to return for the Rose of Kingston (1400m) in three weeks and Mystic Journey likely to go to the Stocks Stakes at Moonee Valley, the race she triumphed at last year before heading to the Group 1 Empire Rose.

If Ryan thought Still a Star’s effort was good, the connections of Mystic Journey had every right to feel excited about their mare’s outstanding run.

Mystic Journey was never better than four-wide and much of that without cover, yet when her rider Luke Nolan called on her for the big effort, she let down well and failed by only a halflength to run the eventual winner down.

Mystic Journey clocked the best closing sectionals on the nine-race card.