Latest News

By Ray Hickson

Trainer Ron Quinton is encouraged by the form around his lightly raced youngster Bryant holding up and he hopes it can translate into success at Canterbury on Wednesday.

Bryant was the best of the chasers behind Raging Force when they met on the Kensington track two weeks ago and Quinton was pleased to see the winner go on with it up in class last weekend.

While the onus now is on his gelding to put a win on the board he said whether that comes in the TAB Handicap (1200m) or later on he’s heading in the right direction.

“His run was very good the other day, he was beaten easily but he beat the others just as easily as the winner beat us,’’ Quinton said.

“We thought he’d run well for sure and he did, we have a little bit of an opinion of him.

“He’s going to keep getting a bit better each time, he’s a nice enough horse.”

The son of Brutal, $3.30 with TAB on Tuesday, had a gap of almost two months going into that last start second and Quinton said he has plenty of upside.

Bryant runs second at Kensington on June 25

In a late season two-year-old race with a number of first starters he said it’s hard to know what some of the opposition might produce but he’s confident Bryant will have his chance to improve on that fresh effort.

“He’s drawn a reasonably good alley, and I wanted to see him draw well because you need to ride him a bit patiently and you don’t want to fire him up,’’ he said.

“That should work in his favour and he should be sharp enough for 1200m. He will get a bit further for sure.”

Stablemate Signor Tortoni put a win on the board at Gosford at his fifth start that Quinton said was a long time coming and he chases successive wins in the Asahi Super Dry Handicap (1200m).

The three-year-old had been runner-up in three straight runs, including twice at Canterbury, before scoring as a $1.14 chance just under a month ago.

“The only thing that surprised me was that he hadn’t won before that,’’ Quinton said.

“He’d always shown good ability on the track and his race starts had been sound. It was good to get that win out of the way and hopefully he can go on with it.”

With two early scratchings, Signor Tortoni jumps from six in the seven horse field and Quinton said while it’s likely he’d lead again he feels can be effective under a different scenario.

“I’d love to see him ridden just a fraction off them, I don’t want to see him leading all the time,’’ he said.

All the fields, form and replays for Wednesday’s Canterbury meeting