Five-year-old Red Ransom mare Amaryllis justified her race favouritism at Ellerslie today, leading home the five-horse field in the $20,000 Blandford Lodge Yearling Draft 1100m.

With Vinny Colgan setting a moderate pace on Double Barrel (Bertolini), he was looking to out-sprint the field down the home straight but James McDonald had other plans, guiding Amaryllis one off the fence and lunging to the lead just before the line.

Trained at Pencarrow Racing by Rambo & Julia, Amaryllis now has seven wins from 24 starts. Her last start in the Listed Newmarket Handicap at Ellerslie on Boxing Date saw her held up at the top of the straight but power home in a very fast finish to take fourth place. Her start before that saw her run second by a nostril in the Group 2 Concorde H. so she was primed and overdue for today’s win.

By Red Ransom, Amaryllis is from the top performing Pencarrow racemare Lafleur (Zabeel x Desert Lily). Lafleur missed in 2008 so doesn’t have a yearling, but has a filly foal by Redoute’s Choice.