Solid field sizes, a couple of races full to capacity, providing true pace, no sign of track bias and some brilliant navigation all made for an interesting day's racing. The type you want to bet on, reports Craig Young in the Sydney Morning Herald. His report adds: There was little off-season dross to complain about on Saturday at Rosehill. That boring stuff. The only worry was large fields and a lack of senior riders. Kerrin McEvoy and Jim Cassidy suspended. No Rod Quinn, Glyn Schofield riding
Solid field sizes, a couple of races full to capacity, providing true pace, no sign of track bias and some brilliant navigation all made for an interesting day's racing. The type you want to bet on, reports Craig Young in the Sydney Morning Herald.
His report adds: There was little off-season dross to complain about on Saturday at Rosehill. That boring stuff. The only worry was large fields and a lack of senior riders. Kerrin McEvoy and Jim Cassidy suspended. No Rod Quinn, Glyn Schofield riding out west, Corey Brown is in Mauritius.
Thankfully, the latest crop of aspiring riders are standing up. Apprentices making the most of opportunities presented. It is not lost on chief steward Ray Murrihy.
''They are coming through together and coming through the ranks pretty quickly,'' Murrihy said yesterday. ''When you look at total numbers, we are not oversubscribed with a quantity of senior riders available.''
Especially when the likes of Tye Angland, Zac Purton and Tim Clark - all former gun apprentices - have been lost to Hong Kong in recent years. Even more so when errant riders are outed, head interstate or overseas. ''You have to have young riders coming through of a metropolitan standard,'' Murrihy said. When senior jockey Chris O'Brien pulled the plug on Friday, Monton was without a jockey for the Festival Stakes at Rosehill. The feature race had 12 senior riders engaged. There were no senior reserves in the ranks. The ride on Monton went to three-kilo claimer Sam Clipperton.
He rode superbly. Shoved the strong one, Nash Rawiller, out of the way on straightening. Rawiller was on Gai Waterhouse's favourite King Lionheart. (www.smh.com.au)