Ritchie has highest hopes for 3YO

Cut Me Loose has all the credentials to succeed at the highest level, according to trainer Shaune Ritchie.

“He’s a cracking looker and he’s got the pedigree being by Swiss Ace out of a Redoute’s Choice mare,” he said. “He’s got a sweet action when he gets going - he’s a serious horse.”

Cut Me Loose has made an excellent start to his career with two wins and a third placing in the Gr.2 Wellington Guineas behind Saracino from his four appearances.

“The winner has won a Group Two down the straight course at Flemington and won the Foxbridge Plate and my horse is still very inexperienced,” Ritchie said.

“He lost a length 600 metres from home when he should have been gaining one. He’s still very new and clumsy.”

From the family of the Gr.1 Golden Slipper winner Polar Success, Cut Me Loose is likely to cross the Tasman later this year.

“We might take him over to the Queensland winter carnival, I think he would be very competitive there,” Ritchie said.

Cut Me Loose is raced by his breeder Gerry Harvey, whose stallion roster at his Westbury Stud operation includes Swiss Ace, also the sire of Ritchie’s Bella Gioia. The Group One-performed filly is another Brisbane contender.

“They would be very good advertisements for Swiss Ace over there,” he said.

Bella Gioia finished runner-up in the New Zealand 1000 Guineas in the spring after which she underwent surgery to remove bone chips from her fetlock.

“All going well, the plan is to run her first-up in the Cambridge Breeders' Stakes and if she performs well she'll go to Brisbane,” Ritchie said.