{"id":265259,"date":"2025-07-14T21:32:14","date_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265259\/"},"modified":"2025-07-14T21:32:14","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T21:32:14","slug":"2025-ramornie-handicap-at-grafton-prince-of-boom-faces-test","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/265259\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 Ramornie Handicap at Grafton: Prince Of Boom faces test"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramornie Handicap<\/a> contender Prince Of Boom<\/a> could be retired unless he can rediscover his old form in the $200,000 Listed race over 1200m at Grafton on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Robert Heathcote<\/a>-trained gelding, who has been battling hoof issues, hasn\u2019t won since taking out the Group 3 WJ Healy Stakes<\/a> (1200m) two years ago.<\/p>\n

And jockey Aaron Bullock<\/a> faces a monumental challenge to win the time-honoured sprint on the six-year-old after Prince Of Boom drew gate 20 (including emergencies).<\/p>\n

Heathcote\u2019s fellow Brisbane trainer Kelly Schweida<\/a> scratched Metalart<\/a> from the Ramornie on Monday afternoon after the last-start WJ Healy Stakes winner drew barrier 19.<\/p>\n

Metalart was a $5.50 chance with bookmakers before the barrier draw.<\/p>\n

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The race favourite is the Richard Litt<\/a>-trained gelding Barber<\/a> ($4, barrier four), with the ex-Godolphin sprinter\u2019s most recent victory coming in the $250,000 Listed Takeover Target Stakes<\/a> (1200m) at Gosford on May 10.<\/p>\n

Heathcote spoke to Racenet on Monday from the Rocky Mountains in Canada, where he is holidaying with his family, and admitted Prince Of Boom faced a rocky future if he couldn\u2019t turn around his fortunes on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The son of Spirit Of Boom<\/a> finished last in the WJ Healy on June 28 at Eagle Farm<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read: \u2018She\u2019s left a big footprint\u2019: 20 years on, Boss and Makybe Diva still inspire a nation<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Heathcote will also saddle up The Big Goodbye<\/a> in the Ramornie, which the gelding won as a five-year-old in 2023.<\/p>\n

The Big Goodbye has been freshened up nicely after suffering a stone bruise in his hoof that led to an infection, similar to what happened to star stablemate Rothfire<\/a> in the lead-up to the $3m Stradbroke Handicap<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s fair to say they\u2019re past their best but if they can recover some of their past form then they\u2019re going to be competitive,\u201d Heathcote said about his pair, who are both $11 in the market. <\/p>\n

\u2022 Eagle Farm \u2018sight screen\u2019 coming down ahead of vital Tuesday trials<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cPrince Of Boom is a $1.4 million earner and on his best day, he would beat these but he\u2019s a horse that suffers from chronic hoof issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s an ongoing source of frustration but I reckon we\u2019ve got him right going into this race.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can shout from the highest mountain saying \u2018he\u2019s spot-on\u2019 but we won\u2019t really know until he\u2019s under pressure at the 300m mark.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a hard race so my two will have to step up and be counted. Certainly Prince of Boom, his future is clouded unless he can recover his old form.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis desire is still there but his feet are causing him problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Eagle Farm \u2018sight screen\u2019 coming down ahead of vital Tuesday trials<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n

Schweida had never entered a horse into the Ramornie Handicap before this week but he was ready to have a crack with Metalart until the barrier draw cruelled his hopes of vying for the winner\u2019s $109,000 in prizemoney.<\/p>\n

In a wide-open race, there are five gallopers in the market at $8 or under. They are Barber ($4), Compelling Truth<\/a> ($5), Midnight In Tokyo<\/a>, Sha Of Gomer<\/a> and Tribeca Star<\/a> (all $8). <\/p>\n

Leading Sydney trainer Peter Snowden<\/a> has won the Ramornie six times, either solo or with his son Paul, including last year with Ka Bling<\/a>, but does not have a horse in this year\u2019s edition.<\/p>\n

Originally published as Prince of Boom could be retired if he doesn\u2019t show enough in Wednesday\u2019s 2025 Ramornie Handicap<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ramornie Handicap contender Prince Of Boom could be retired unless he can rediscover his old form in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":265260,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[101232,6207,521,186,22631,101234,101233,943,49814,101231,101240,89106,29609,101238,2122,101242,2048,300,24993,22617,16374,101237,89976,89116,101235,101241,91918,89978,101239,89977,1071,89114,15467,79,101236,1862,7808,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-265259","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-aaron-bullock","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-asia","11":"tag-australia","12":"tag-australia-and-new-zealand","13":"tag-barrier-draw","14":"tag-bust-time","15":"tag-canada","16":"tag-car-park","17":"tag-chronic-hoof-issues","18":"tag-contest-won","19":"tag-daniel-pace","20":"tag-eastern-asia","21":"tag-ex-godolphin-sprinter","22":"tag-japan","23":"tag-kelly-schweida","24":"tag-new-south-wales","25":"tag-north-america","26":"tag-northern-america","27":"tag-oceania","28":"tag-paul","29":"tag-peter-snowden","30":"tag-punters-racing","31":"tag-punters-racing-queensland","32":"tag-race-favourite","33":"tag-racenet-betting","34":"tag-racenet-country","35":"tag-racenet-nsw","36":"tag-racenet-qld","37":"tag-racenet-race-previews","38":"tag-racing","39":"tag-robert-heathcote","40":"tag-spirit","41":"tag-sports","42":"tag-stone-bruise","43":"tag-sydney","44":"tag-tokyo","45":"tag-uk","46":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=265259"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/265259\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/265260"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=265259"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=265259"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=265259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}