Progressive Tryster Captures Winter Derby

Tryster swept past rivals for an impressive victory in the Group Three coral.co.uk Winter Derby on Polytrack at Lingfield Park, UK, on Saturday, March 14.

The progressive four-year-old son of Shamardal has now won all four of his races this year. This was his first outing in a Group contest and follows on from three handicap victories on the All-Weather at Kempton Park (Polytrack), Wolverhampton (Tapeta) and Chelmsford City (Polytrack).

Tryster, with Adam Kirby up, was squeezed when exiting the stalls in the Winter Derby which meant he raced in second last of the 11 runners.

He improved a couple of places turning into the short straight at Lingfield Park but still had plenty to.

Tryster was switched right to make his challenge and came with a very strong run on the outside to get his head in front in the closing stages and win cosily by three quarters of a length from Grendisar in a fast time of 2m 1.71s.

Charlie Appleby commented: "Adam Kirby has given Tryster a fantastic ride today. You know Adam - he can go from the front or in behind with no fear because he was the best horse in the race.

"We said to him beforehand to go out there and ride with a plenty of confidence, win lose or draw, and he that is what he has done.

"Tryster has thrived and he is an exciting horse going forward. We will all re-group, see where we go from here and, obviously, he could potentially run in the Easter Classic here on Good Friday (April 3).

"We will all get together, see how the horse comes out of this race and work from there.

"One of best plans we made was skipping the trial for this race. You get confidence into horses at this time of year or get them on a good wave, and you never know where they will end up.

"He has proved today that he is a horse with supreme confidence and I had great confidence in the rider.

"There is plenty of scope in him. He had an easy campaign as a juvenile and three-year-old and is thriving now. Hopefully, we will see a bit more yet from him.

"There's no reason why he wouldn't equate this form to turf. We didn't pinpoint him out to be a synthetic horse - it was just that we came to the end of last season, thought that this was a horse with low mileage and we will let him develop over the winter."

Adam Kirby added: "Tryster is an exciting horse and he improves with every run. He keeps coming forward and I am delighted with him.

"I travelled round and it was a bit messy going into the first turn. I was a length further back than I wanted to be but we were going a nice gallop. We were all grouping up coming down the hill and that was perfect for me.

"I had to wait for a bit of a split and he quickened up - he is pretty special. He likes to come there late - he gets there, has a little look round and he's happy.

"Mixing it with those horse, he is probably improving because he is getting a proper gallop. He is smart."