Ranier received the reward for his consistency and provided an early birthday honour for his sire Lonhro with a narrow but determined victory in Saturday’s G3 Festival Stakes at Rosehill.
The success, Ranier’s second at Group level and his third in Stakes company, came in the last stride of the 1,500m race when he grabbed Live And Free to win by a nose.
Jockey Kathy O’Hara gave the gelding a perfect run just behind the leaders from the inside gate and found clear running at the 200m.
It appeared, however, that Live And Free had the race won when he sprinted through along the rail, but Ranier kept on giving to snatch the fourth win of his career.
For Lonhro, the win came just short of his 21st birthday, adding to an illustrious career in which he has sired 890 individual winners, 88 of them succeeding at Stakes level.
Lonhro has just completed the latest southern hemisphere season at Kelvinside, NSW, where he stood at a fee of $77,000.
