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Steven Ramsay and Julia Ritchie will revert to Plan B this week with their talented sprinter Silver Eclipse.
They are now focussing on Friday’s Listed Levin Stakes with the Group One prospect, but they also have another fall back option should the ground be again unsuitable.
“It’s weather dependant with her and she’ll go to Otaki as long as the track is okay, otherwise there’s the Concorde the following Saturday,” Ramsay said.They were cursing their luck with Silver Eclipse, who was primed for a bold showing in the Listed Counties Bowl last Saturday before the rain came.
“She was really well in at the weights and had the draw, but she’s quite a big-strider like Guiseppina and needs a good track,” Ramsay said,The now retired Guiseppina won the Gr.1 J & N Berkett Telegraph in 2012 and Silver Eclipse also has the Trentham race on her programme again, as well as the Gr.1 Sistema Railway Stakes.
She finished a close fifth in the Ellerslie feature last season and did well to run seventh in The Telegraph from the outside gate.Silver Eclipse has had one outing this time in for a sixth placing in the Listed Lochinver Station Plate at Rotorua where she was caught three wide without cover from another wide draw.
“Her second-up record can’t be faulted – she’s unbeaten,” Ramsay said.The five-year-old will be accompanied to Otaki by her younger sister Belle Eclipse, who was a first-up winner on the course earlier this month.
“She’ll run in the Rating 75 and she’s a nice, progressive mare,” Ramsay said.Wet ground forced them to withdraw the stakes winner from Saturday’s Avondale meeting