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By Ray Hickson

Conscript’s coming of age has been some time in the making but co-trainer Gerald Ryan says he now has a horse than can handle just about any situation he faces.

Trainer Gerald Ryan (Pic: Bradley Photos)

The five-year-old makes the step into stakes company for the first time in the Listed $160,000 Bob Charley AO Stakes (1100m) at Randwick on Saturday on the back of a dominant second-up win over the same course two weeks ago.

While Conscript won his first two starts as a two-year-old, including the Silver Goblet at Dubbo three years ago this week, it took another seven before he started to put it all together.

“First-up a couple of preps back he ran second at Goulburn then soon after he won three straight and he’s been a good, honest, horse,’’ Ryan said.

“The beauty with him is he’s so adaptable. He can lead and win, the other day he went back and won. Good tracks, heavy tracks, soft tracks don’t worry him.

“He’s only a little horse but he’s a strong horse.”

The gelding arrives in a Listed race, $5.50 with TAB on Wednesday, having shown that adaptability last start by overcoming a wide run behind a strong pace and still finishing over the top.

He rises 4.5kg on that win, where Reece Jones was able to claim 1.5kg, and Ryan said the decision to miss his summer campaign seems to have paid off.

“He came back in and we just weren’t happy with him,’’ he said.

“It might have been the hard tracks. His trackwork rider galloped him one morning, he hadn’t been on him in a while, and he said this horse doesn’t feel as good as he usually feels.

“So we turned him out again.”

Where Conscript heads beyond Saturday may depend on the result, a race like the Ramornie Handicap next month is a possibility while Ryan, who co-trains with Sterling Alexiou, wouldn’t rule out trying him at 1400m in a Glasshouse.

Stable stalwart Steely is just about ready to break through, Ryan says, in the Drinkwise Mile (1600m) after he played second fiddle to stablemate Cisco Bay two weeks ago at his second run back.

It’s been 12 starts since the gelding’s last success, over a mile on The Gong program in 2021.

“He’s a good honest horse and you need those horses in the joint,’’ he said.

“This is the race I thought he’d be really hard to beat in. He came up really well and he probably ran a bit better than he would the other day.

“I thought he still needed the run but he’s come on from it.”

Union Army and Bitcoin Baby take their place in the 50 Year And Life Member Handicap (1200m) and Ryan said the former had obvious excuses for his last start defeat while the latter may have less obvious reasons for her latest effort.

The mare had a two month break following a Warwick Farm win in March and returned at Rosehill with a battling midfield finish behind Miss Hellfire last month – and Ryan feels her home track is to blame.

“I thought she’d run better the other day and went awful then I looked back through her form and she’s had six starts at Rosehill and has not run a decent race,’’ he said.

“Her work last Saturday morning was sensational, she worked the joint down. And she worked really well again (Wednesday) morning.

Conscript wins at Randwick on May 27

“If she ran well I might sneak her up for the Gai Waterhouse Classic.”

Luck didn’t go Union Army’s way two weeks back when he ran a close fifth behind Yoshino in a three-year-old race over the same course.

Ryan hopes with just 53kg and the inside gate he can have the chance to atone.

“For a horse who went a furlong and a half without getting a crack at them, and to be beaten 1.7 lengths, he went terrific,’’ he said.

Meanwhile, Ryan cast his eye over dual Group 1 placed colt Williamsburg during the week as he entered pre-training for the spring and was pleased to see him around 50kg heavier than start of last prep.

All the fields, form and replays for Saturday's Randwick meeting