You won’t see Ryan Hinton’s name in any racebooks, but he has held the keys to the Lightning Stakes in his hands for the past month.
The Mornington trackrider has been getting on favourite Tentyris and then My Gladiola in the mornings.
“There is not that much between them,” he said. “But don’t forget Point Barrow, I ride her as well, so there are three of them.”
Point Barrow will wait for next week’s Oakleigh Plate, where she is well placed at the weights, instead of taking on Tentyris and My Gladiloa at weight-for-age, whose head-to-head stands 1-all.
My Gladiola got the better of Tentyris as they filled the placings behind McGaw in the Danehill Stakes over 1100m before following him through and chasing him home in the Coolmore Stud Stakes.
She might prove to be a more natural short-course horse.
“They are certainly different,” Hinton said. “She is more raw with a bundle of ability and has that excited energy about her,” Hinton said. “Even in the mornings, she is there bouncing, but she is starting to relax, which will help her.”
Hinton has ridden out for My Gladiola’s trainer John McArdle for seven years and has rarely seen a filly of her quality in his stable.
McArdle watches both horses work of a morning but is comfortable that My Gladiola is closer than the two lengths she was away from Tentyris in the Coolmore.
“Jamie Mott did the sectionals for her best down the straight and it is the equal of any horse in the Lightning,” McArdle said. “In the Coolmore, her last 200m was similar to Tentyris once she got through, so I think we are right with him in this race.”
Hinton has worked for Anthony and Sam Freedman for three years and gets on Tentyris for a second opinion most weeks.
“He has got a really clean action and is so laid back,” Hinton said. “He is so powerful and you feel that from the time you get on him.”
“It’s no surprise what he has done so far and what he might do.”
Tentyris doesn’t boast the clean record, he was photo-finished into second in the Blue Diamond before winning the Todman Stakes as a two-year-old. He missed the Golden Slipper through injury but came back to run the fastest time in Coolmore history.
“The horse has really strengthened up over the summer and he is raring to go,” trainer Sam Freedman said.
