Two jockeys favoured to fight out the Golden Slipper will also have their minds on an important end-of-season result when they ride at Warwick Farm on Wednesday.
Little separates Tommy Berry and Hugh Bowman in the Sydney jockeys’ premiership and they will be as close as they can be from prized draws in the Golden Slipper stalls on Saturday.
Berry will ride Overreach from the rails and Bowman is on Criterion, the third betting pick who jumps from the favourite’s immediate outside.
But Berry’s other priority is to preserve his narrow jockeys’s title lead at Warwick Farm when he takes four rides, including two with genuine chances.
He has ridden 50 metropolitan winners this season and holds a 1-1/2 win advantage over Bowman as he chases his first senior riders’ crown.
Berry says riding at a city midweek meeting like Warwick Farm and a provincial fixture such as Thursday’s Gosford meeting are an accepted part of working for Overreach’s trainer Gai Waterhouse.
“I am just going to run my week the way I usually do and enjoy it and enjoy the build-up to the race,” Berry said.
“Obviously there is a bit more pressure. But I had a little bit of feeling the same pressure with Karuta Queen being a short-priced favourite in the Magic Millions.”
No surprisingly, Berry’s best Warwick Farm chances will be supplied by Waterhouse’s Tulloch Lodge.
Two-year-old Aztec Rose, who closed late against stablemate Hydro in a 1400m race at Newcastle, is back in distance in the Become An ATC Sponsor Maiden Plate (1250m).
Against that, she takes on her own kind as she searches for her first win in three starts.
Berry will ride Mr Monopolize, another of the stable’s overseas stayers, for the first time.
Mr Monopolize graduates to city racing in the Sharp Handicap (2400m) after successive Newcastle wins last month.
Charleston Lady, one of five rides for Bowman, can be expected to provide strong opposition to Mr Monopolize because she is an import trained by Chris Waller and is down in class on her most recent run.
Bowman will also ride Duet, another horse who takes on a lesser grade after finishing fifth to top-class stablemate Norzita in the Group One Flight Stakes at her last run during the spring.
