Brad Rawiller has been booked to ride Melbourne Cup hopeful Empires Choice when he tackles Queensland's glamour sprints.Trainer Bart Cummings will run both Empires Choice and Swick in Saturday's Doomben 10,000 followed by the Stradbroke Handicap two weeks later.Cummings welcomed 2007 Queensland Derby winner Empires Choice back to the stable after scans cleared him of any lasting effects of a soft tissue injury suffered in February last year.That injury prompted the trained to retire Empires Choi
Brad Rawiller has been booked to ride Melbourne Cup hopeful Empires Choice when he tackles Queensland's glamour sprints.
Trainer Bart Cummings will run both Empires Choice and Swick in Saturday's Doomben 10,000 followed by the Stradbroke Handicap two weeks later.
Cummings welcomed 2007 Queensland Derby winner Empires Choice back to the stable after scans cleared him of any lasting effects of a soft tissue injury suffered in February last year.
That injury prompted the trained to retire Empires Choice with a view to standing him at his own Princes Farm.
Council approval for a stallion barn was not reached in time for the 2008 breeding season and Empires Choice's recovery convinced Cummings he still had more to give on the track.
Although he was always with the tailenders in his return in the Doomben Dash (1110m) Cummings was pleased with Empires' Choice's effort to finish 5-1/2 lengths from the winner.
"I was happy with that and all the reports are he has been working well up in Queensland," Cummings said.
"Brad Rawiller will ride him in the 10,000 and the Stradbroke.
"They tell me Apache Cat won't run in the Stradbroke so the weights will go up and Brad will be able to ride at 55 kilos.
"Although he won a Derby, Empires Choice ran good races over the shorter distances as a young horse."
Proven sprinter Swick will also represent Cummings in both the Doomben 10,000 and the Stradbroke with Michael Rodd aboard.
Rodd rode Swick to Group One glory in the Patinack Farm Classic last spring.
Cummings watched Saturday's Brisbane races from Canterbury in Sydney and was pleased with the effort of Think Money to run fifth in the Doomben Roses (2020m).
Although she is still a maiden, Think Money has seven minor placings on her record including a second to Daffodil in the AJC Australian Oaks.
The Queensland fillies' classic is Think Money's aim and she came within 2-1/4 lengths of Roses winner Awesome Planet.
"It was quite pleasing considering she was last at the 1200 metres," Cummings said.
The Graeme Rogerson-trained Awesome Planet finished third to Roses runner-up Ekstreme in the Group Three Lowland Stakes at Trentham in February in which Daffodil was third.