By Brad Gray
Two-year-old Snitzel colt Menari, whose name means 'dance' in Malay, won his latest trial in brilliant fashion and the covers will come off the youngster at Randwick on Saturday.
"Nice horse. Big horse. Confidence horse," Gerald Ryan succinctly put it.
"He thinks he is pretty good. He is a strong horse and he knows his own strength, put it that way.
“What he has shown in his trials and his jumpouts, that’s what he has shown he is. He’ll bounce and put himself right on top of the speed.”
Ryan is an exceptional trainer of two-year-olds, and has enjoyed particular success with the Snitzel progeny but as far as rating this one goes, he is happy for odds-on chance Menari to tell him exactly how good he is.
“We’ll just wait until we see how he goes. I think he is a genuine Sydney class Saturday horse. You don’t know how good they are until you put them down on race day.”
Menari cruises to his latest trial win - 30 Dec
Menari's first trial win at Rosehill - 20 Dec
As for the two-year-old crop this season, Ryan likes what he sees.
“From what I’ve seen, it’s quite a handy lot of horses. I think they are a better crop than last year. The good three-year-olds were the ones that hardly did any racing as two-year-olds.”
Modha is chasing back-to-back wins after getting home at Warwick Farm last start, beating subsequent TAB Highway Handicap winner Chosen Prayer. The start prior she chased home Gary Portelli’s flying filly Improvement.
“She has raced well in two runs and gets in well at the light weight. Having a quick look, the lack of speed in the race is a bit of a worry. Other than that, we’re happy with her.”
Meanwhile, Ryan saddles up Chauffeur in the 2YO Magic Millions feature, with the $1.6 million colt currently rated a $21 chance with TAB.
“He got here Wednesday and settled in straight away. He walked over and cantered around the track at the Gold Coast this morning as if he has been doing it all his life.”