Trainer Steele Ryan declared Cariad the best horse he ever trained after the Sequalo mare stormed home to win the Listed Nudgee Quality at Doomben on Saturday.  She will be set for the G1 Winter Stakes and Ryan believes she can make the grade at the elite level.  

“I’ve been telling people for 12 months Cariad is my best ever,” Ryan said.  “She had a lot of problems early on and it’s been a hard grind to get her right.”

Ryan backed up that rating by nominating the mare for Saturday’s Listed event despite stepping up from a Class 3 win at a Doomben midweek meeting.

Cariad (4m Sequalo – Shower of Steel by Comet Shine) is the 16th individual stakes winner for Lyndhurst Stud sire Sequalo.  She is a half-sister to G3 South African winner Polished Steel (King of Danes) and a three-quarter sister to BRC Easter Cup winner Steel Lips (Sequalo).

Her dam Shower of Steel won 8 races in Sydney and the NSW Northern Rivers.  Her latest foals are a 2yo filly by Excites and a yearling colt by Choisir.

Cariad was a $30,000 buy at the 2008 Gold Coast Magic Millions for Ken Turner and she’s not the first good galloper he has raced.  “Tubby” Turner owned champion sire Lion Hunter and he’s also bred stakes winners like Ferocity, Leone Chiara, Chinchilla Rose and Star Witness who is the pre-post favourite for the G1 Australian Guineas on March 5.