ROSEHILL
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When most horses are generally in the twilight of their careers, Robert Price somehow seems to coax that little bit more out of them.
Take 10-year-old Gunna Happen, former Nowra Cup winner, who still races with the same verve and vigour as a spritely three-year-old.
There's Druid, the "rising eight-year-old" as Price likes to describe him, who is back in work to help swell the $135,000 he's banked to date.
Now it's Ramsay's Curse's turn, not quite in the Gunna Happen or Druid vintage at just seven years old, but somehow finding enough to still be worthy of consideration at metropolitan level.
"They're good bread-and-butter horses and you've got to have those sort of horses in your stable," Price said on the eve of today's Benchmark 85 Handicap (1500m) at Rosehill, in which Ramsay's Curse is entered.
"Notoriously, they win a race each prep and they pay their way."
Which is exactly what Ramsay's Curse has been doing of late, powering through the $100,000 prizemoney barrier despite fetching just $9000 when Price plucked the gelding out of a sales ring.
Narrow wins at Canberra and Goulburn have the Berry horseman dreaming of country cups glory with Ramsay's Curse, on the cusp of a start in the Goulburn Cup on Sunday week.
But not if there's any rain around.
"It's the dry weather that I put [his winning preparation] down to," Price said.
"He just cannot handle a wet track. If you ever want to break the drought - start Ramsay's Curse somewhere. Rain knows how to follow him.
"[Today] looks like a lovely race for him, but if that falls away we'll look at the Goulburn Cup."
Price has engaged Ramsay's Curse's regular rider Jay Ford, who booted home Too Hi Tek to a boilover win at Rosehill a fortnight ago when sent out a 100/1 shot.
Kembla Grange's Gwenda Markwell also has another ageing galloper in the race with eight-year-old Bay Window drawn in barrier three.