‘Biggest Stride Of Any Two-Year-Old’ – Jockey Tells Pride

Joe Pride knows his charges are primed for Day 1 of The Championships but it’s the words of a star jockey that has the Warwick Farm horseman pumped about one in particular.

The likeable trainer has seven horses engaged this Saturday at Randwick, four of them engaged in Group 1s.“Huge thrill to have a great team heading towards a major raceday like this,” Pride said.

“They’re all in tip-top order and other than the unknowns on wet tracks and bad luck, there’s really no excuses for them.”

It’s likely Stockman won’t back-up in the Chairmans Quality after running in the Tancred Stakes at Newcastle on Monday.

“I think he’ll go straight into the Sydney Cup. He’s right where we need him,” he said.

Pride has enjoyed good success at Randwick over the past 12 months saddling up 10 winners from 59 runners at the strike rate of 17 per cent.

Punters who stuck solid with Pride at headquarters over the last year would be turning at tidy profit of almost 50 per cent on turnover.

Not really known for his two-year-old cattle, Pride says Nash Rawiller told him something about Shalatin that might cause concern this Saturday but has the trainer smiling about the colt’s future.

“Nash reckons he’s got the biggest stride of any two-year-old he’s ridden,” Pride said.

“So that can make wet tracks a negative but I think he’s a very good colt that will be winning good races.”

Nature Strip and Eduardo lock horns for the 10th time in the Group 1 TJ Smith Stakes [1200m]. Currently its five win to Nature Strip versus four for Eduardo.

“He’s super and won last prep at 1300m so we’re confident he can take it to them over the 1200m,” he said.

Private Eye and Brutality will take their place in the Doncaster Mile, a race Pride won in 2009 with Vision And Power and again two years later with Sacred Choice.

“They both need a fast tempo so we’ll be relying on that,” he added.

“Everything has gone to plan with the whole team and if the breaks go our way we could be in for a big day.”