Craig KerryJuly 4, 2026 — 7:00pmGerald Ryan heaped praise on co-trainer Sterling Alexiou for his “huge job” in getting injury-prone General Salute in shape for an overdue Winter Stakes win on a day of drought-breakers at Rosehill on Saturday.General Salute faded to finish ninth last start in the listed Civic Stakes (1400m) in a rare outright failure for the five-year-old, which had run top three in his previous eight starts, many against top company.Tim Clark takes General Salute to victory in the Winter Stakes.Getty ImagesJockey Tim Clark settled General Salute further back on Saturday in the 1400m listed Winter Stakes before taking an inside run into space near the 200m mark. The $8.50 chance raced away to a length victory over Chris Waller-trained McHale, with Midnight Dynamite third. It was his first win since the Star Kingdom Stakes 458 days earlier and took his earnings to $869,000 from four wins and eight placings in 18 starts.“It’s great to see the little horse get back,” Ryan said.“He’s overcome a lot of setbacks and a lot of difficulties. The owners have been very patient. They bred him and kept him because he couldn’t go to the sale. He had a problem. He’s had problems all his life, but it’s good to see the horse do that.”Ryan took the blame for stepping up General Salute too far from a fast-finishing second in the 1100m Bob Charley AO Stakes to 1400m in the Civic Stakes. He had been off the scene for 31 weeks before those runs because of bone-chip surgery.“He had an operation on his foot as a foal and we had heaps of trouble with it,” Ryan said.“He kept getting quarter-cracks. When he had that long time away, we cut all his foot away and turned him out to let it grow out.“He came back and ran at Randwick and chipped a joint and we had to have surgery, but his feet … he’ll go four days sound and then he’ll be lame.“You can’t work him on hard tracks and you can’t let his feet get too soft. We swim him a lot then we have to harden his feet up again. Sterling does a huge job.”Ryan said the Winter Challenge at Rosehill in two weeks was a likely next target.Earlier on the program, Michael Freedman-trained Polyglot (533 days), Matt Smith-prepared Anythink Goes (875 days) and Mike Van Gestel’s Dark Glitter (510 days) also broke winless droughts. Polyglot gave clark a double.Resilient Grima repays Waller’s faithPremier trainer Chris Waller knew apprentice Siena Grima had what it took to make it in Sydney three months ago when he sat her down for a chat during a lean patch.Grima has since proved Waller’s instincts right.The 23-year-old, who made the move from Tamworth to Waller’s stables last December, went to the joint lead alongside defending champion Braith Nock in the Sydney apprentices’ premiership with a double on Saturday at Rosehill.Grima won on $850,000 Yulong-owned colt Omolong and well-backed favourite Hello Captain for Waller with faultless rides, going to 30 city victories for the season. With seven meetings remaining, Grima will be hard to beat for the title, given Waller’s support and the fact Nock will miss next Saturday’s Randwick program after copping a July 9-15 careless riding suspension on Wednesday.Waller praised Grima’s resilience and ability to handle pressure, especially when riding favourites and high-priced colts like Omolong.“She had a tough time three months ago,” Waller said.“She wasn’t riding many winners. I got her into the office and sat her down, and I expected her to get emotional and do it tough, but she didn’t waver one bit.“She said, no, she’s happy, she appreciates where she is and what she’s doing, and from that day on, well, if you’re handling it well when you’re having a tough time, that’s showing your makeup.“She rode Tron Bolt before he won the JJ Atkins. Little things like that might not seem much to us, but they notice they are on favourites, they notice they are on expensive colts.“We don’t put any pressure on them, but they naturally put pressure on themselves. Doesn’t matter what sport you play. Pressure is a big thing.”Omolong made it two from two in the 1100m two-year-old race. Waller predicted a great future for the Extreme Choice colt and earmarked the Coolmore Stud Stakes (1200m) at Flemington on October 31 as an ideal late spring target after a short spell.Hello Captain came from well back to easily win the 1300m benchmark 72 handicap, going to four victories in six starts. Waller was looking for another Saturday benchmark race for him in the coming weeks.Alysha Collett (Silvanito, Anythink Goes) and Anna Roper (Dark Glitter, Nullarbor Jane) also rode doubles.Pride mare lives up to potentialWarwick Farm trainer Joe Pride was eyeing open company in the July Sprint in two weeks at Rosehill with Big Red Tequila after she delivered on her “D-Day” at the track on Saturday.Pride had been disappointed the four-year-old had not won one of her two starts this preparation and said it was time for her to fire, if she was as good as he thought.Second last approaching the turn, Big Red Tequila ($1.60) made up several lengths carrying 60.5kg to win the 1100m benchmark 78 for fillies and mares by three-quarters of a length. A $75,000 buy for Pride, Big Red Tequila went to five wins in 11 starts and earnings of $245,850.“It’s be careful what you wish for sometimes, isn’t it?,” Pride said of the hot pace up front.“Because I said this morning, if they go slow, it might be to her advantage because she’s going to be there. We ended up with a bit more work to do than we would have liked, but she was good.”Country series on radar after breakthrough winApprentice Izzy Neale scored a special first city win with, and pushed her claims to ride It’s A Tata in the Country Championships for boss Brett Robb, on Saturday at Rosehill.In his first attempt at Highway grade, the Pierata three-year-old took out the 1200m class 3 by a neck, making it four wins on the trot. Neale, 21, had five rides in city races without a placing before the victory. The Scone product has been aboard It’s A Tata before and throughout his seven-start career.“He’s pretty special to me,” Neale said. “I think it’s quite fitting that I can have my first city winner on him.”Robb said It’s A Tata was the best of his early Country Championships hopes and would be spelled with an eye to the series in the new year.From our partners