Foote chasing a boost for his Ego
Ego will attempt to significantly boost his stallion profile with a fresh-up bid for Group One honours in the Railway Stakes on New Year’s Day.
Byerley Park trainer Ben Foote will head to Ellerslie with the six-year-old off a trials preparation and the son of E Dubai took a winning step on the course this week.
Ego, who returned from Sydney early last month, won his open 1000 metre heat in the hands of Leith Innes.
“He really thrives back here and needed that trial and he’ll have one more at Te Aroha on the 20th,” Foote said. “He needs it like concrete and with a hard track and a good draw he’s nearly been unbeatable.”
Raced by Daniel and Elias Nakhle, Ego has won six races including the Gr.2 Concorde Handicap at Ellerslie before he was unplaced in the 2011 Railway. “He drew the outside and the track was a bit rough,” Foote said.
Ego has ventured to Australia twice and last year weighed in at all of his five starts in Sydney but most recently his three-start campaign wasn’t helped by rain-affected tracks.
“It does him good though to race against the class of horse over there,” Foote said. “This will be his last season and the Nakhles will be sending a few of their mares to him.”
Ego is the first foal of the Redoute’s Choice mare Buckling who has also produced the multiple winner Sans Souci and the promising Ready Steady. A debut winner at two and placed in the Gr.2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes, this term she has finished runner-up against the older horses in the Listed Lion Red Plate and was most recently fourth to the Gr.1 performer Randall at Tauranga.
http://www.theinformant.co.nz/racing/archive/2011/12/MK1961/Foote-chasing-a-boost-for-his-Ego