High Achievers in the Ranvet

The G1 Ranvet S., the first of five Group 1s on Rosehill’s Golden Slipper card, has drawn a short but intriguing lineup of middle-distance stars. Godolphin’s Contributer (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) is a clear-cut favorite off back-to-back scores this season in the G2 Apollo S. over 1400 meters Feb. 14 and the one-mile G1 Chipping Norton S. two weeks later. Behind him in both those efforts–in sixth and third, respectively–was the Chris Waller-trained He’s Your Man (Fr)(Cape Cross {Ire}), and while it isn’t easy to see that 6-year-old gelding reversing form, Waller should never be ignored in these important contests. Also looking at the heels of Contributer in the Apollo and Chipping Norton was defending Ranvet winner Silent Achiever (NZ) (O’Reilly {NZ}). Her strong fourth in the Chipping Norton was an improvement on her fifth in the Apollo, and trainer Roger James expressed confidence in his mare. 

“I know her very well and know what she’s capable of,” he told the NZ Racing Desk. “You can only ready your own horse for a big race and we quietly went about doing that last year and we’ve done that again. We’re there to win it and if things went right, she’s capable of doing that.” 

Another classy New Zealand-bred mare set to lineup is Lucia Valentina (NZ) (Savabeel {Aus}). The 4-year-old put in a big run in the Apollo but failed to show up in the Chipping Norton.