Ellsberg - Inaugural Winner Of The Five Diamonds
Tough entire lands another major for Ryan and Alexiou
October 18, 2023
As we head into the $1million Five Diamonds Prelude this Saturday at Royal Randwick on Spring Wild Card Day, we look back at the inaugural winner of the series last year – Ellsberg.
Introduced in 2022, the Five Diamonds attracted strong nominations as evidenced by the Prelude which was run with a field of 16 horses.
This Saturday’s Prelude has 15 runners engaged and boasts a very competitive field, headed by Group 1 winner Converge (Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott), Democracy Manifest (Chris Waller) and promising stayer Fawnker Park (Annabel Neasham).
Going back 12 months though and Ellsberg went into the race as second pick in the market behind Victorian, Ayrton.
Fresh off his Group 1 Epsom success, where he dead-heated with Top Ranked, jockey Brenton Avdulla took the galloper straight to the front and dictated terms.
Booting clear turning for home, Ellsberg kept powering down the Randwick straight to score a comfortable 2.5 length win over Sibaaq, with Rebel Rama rounding out the trifecta.
Three weeks later at Rosehill Gardens it would be the same exacta in the $2million Five Diamonds, however, this time it was Tommy Berry in the saddle.
The time of 1:47.43 was a record over the 1800 metres and a notable success during the carnival for trainers Gerald Ryan and Sterling Alexiou.