Winless for almost 12 months, Trapeze Artist burst back to the winner's circle in Saturday's Group 1 Canterbury Stakes (1300m) at Randwick.
With Blake Shinn in the saddle, Trapeze Artist led all the way to defeat Shoals (Fastnet Rock) by one and a half lengths with Prompt Response (Beneteau) three-quarter of a length back in third. (images Steve Hart).
Trapeze Artist's last win came last April when ridden by Tye Angland in the Group 1 All Aged Stakes at Randwick.
Angland was recently confirmed a quadriplegic after a fall in Hong Kong in November.
"All the jockeys in this race are riding for Tye. He's on track and this is his horse," Shinn said.
"It's pretty emotional really to be given the opportunity. It could've been me in Tye's position, having a fall and breaking my neck. My heart goes out to him and I'm very honoured to be able to ride this horse and ride in these silks in support of Tye. A sensational win on a superstar horse.
"Once I got to the front and I had control and was never in doubt. It was a tricky race to assess but I said to (owner) Bert (Vieria) and (trainer) Gerald (Ryan), 'look we'll just ride the horse, play to his strengths.' He doesn't like a sit-sprint so we made it a bit of a test. How are they going to beat him? On his best, he's up there with the world's best sprinters and he proved that today."
The Vieira family are also dealing with their own tragedy as Bert's wife Gai remains in hospital after being seriously injured when her car was hit by a speeding police vehicle in a well-publicised incident last September.
A good-looking son of Snitzel, Trapeze Artist was winning for the fourth time at the highest level.
"It's the most Group 1s I've won with a horse. We've got two more to go - the TJ and the All Aged. We'll see what happens," Ryan said.
"It will be the same plan as last year. We'll send him away for a week then three weeks to get him ready for the TJ."
Trapeze Artist advances his record to 7 wins, 1 second and 3 thirds from 19 starts with earnings of $5,543,750.
He failed to meet his $130,000 reserve at the 2016 Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale.
Viera purchased the colt's dam Treppes (Domesday) for $190,000 out of the Edinburgh Park draft at the 2014 Magic Millions National Broodmare sale.
She was carrying Trapeze Artist at the time of her sale.
A half-sister to Group I Stradbroke Handicap winner Crawl and the multiple Listed winner Old Man, Treppes has had a series of misfortunes since foaling Trapeze Artist. She missed the following two seasons then her Zoustar colt died after birth.
Treppes has a yearling filly by Wandjina. She missed to Snitzel in 2017 before being covered by the Arrowfield champion again last spring.
The @GRyanRacing-trained Trapeze Artist leads all the way and wins his fourth Group 1 in the Canterbury Stakes @royalrandwick! pic.twitter.com/xPbUpvVY1c
— TAB (@tabcomau) March 9, 2019
