Emaraaty Ana’s “class shone through” as he made a welcome return to the winner’s enclosure in the Blue Eagle Rous Stakes at Ascot.
Despite performing with real consistency of late, the seven-year-old was without a victory since recording a career highlight in Haydock’s Betfair Sprint Cup in 2021.
Sent off the 5-2 favourite in the hands of Neil Callan at the Berkshire track, Kevin Ryan’s speedster thrived, dropping back to the minimum distance, travelling stylishly before keeping on strongly to register a one-and-three-quarter-length victory over chief market rival Korker.
His winning rider was delighted to taste success aboard the sprinting stalwart and hopes the victory will provide the gelded son of Shamardal with a needed confidence booster.
He told Sky Sports Racing: “I was a bit frustrated myself with this horse as I always had plans to win a Group One at some stage this year with him. I was half-thinking, was it me? Is he just not suiting me with the way races are being run? Naturally he was getting out of the gates quicker than he normally used to.
“I suggested to Kevin after the Newmarket run, where he idled a little bit, that he might need a bit of headgear on. I don’t mean that in a bad way because it’s hard to say that about a horse that has had such a career as him.
“He hasn’t lost anything, he’s actually got faster as he’s got older and I think the cheekpieces have just woken him up, sharpened him up. Hopefully that is a good confidence booster for him.”
Emaraaty Ana was close to the pace throughout and Callan explained even though that was his plan heading out, he had a classy performer on his side.
He added: “I really wanted to give him something to aim at, but if you fight them too much they don’t breath properly so I just thought, keep him comfortable and if he’s there with them, he’s there with them.
“When we got to the two I thought we’ve got to pick up and go and win now or he’s not. But his class has shone through today. He’s better than these and I’m just hoping he can get some confidence out of it now and then take the next step back up into a better class.”
Emaraaty Ana finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland last November and was handed a quote of 16-1 by Betfair to go one better in Santa Anita.
