More Joyous is in superior form ahead of Saturday’s Group One Toorak Handicap at Caulfield than she was when she won the race two years ago, according to jockey Nash Rawiller.
The Gai Waterhouse-trained mare will lump 60kg as she chases her seventh consecutive victory.
More Joyous carried 58kg in scoring a long neck win over We’re Gonna Rock in 2010 but flopped to finish fifth in the Cox Plate (2040m) at Moonee Valley two weeks later.
The six-year-old will take on defending champion King Mufhasa on Saturday but Rawiller says the glamour mare has nothing to fear.
“She’s a stronger commodity now, she’s fully matured and she’s the real deal we thought we’d always have,” Rawiller told radio station RSN.
“Back then she was still that little bit fine.
“She went to the Cox Plate after that and got found out by So You Think but in my opinion she’s a better horse now.”
He said the stronger opposition and extra weight should be no impediment for the mare.
“She’s had fairly easy competition but I am a lot more confident because of the way she feels and the way she looks,” Rawiller said.
“I’m sure she’s at the peak of her powers at the moment and I’m sure she can do it.
“Every time we’ve asked her for something like this she defies the odds and from a good gate (four) tomorrow I can’t see why it would be any different.
“King Mufhasa has won ten Group Ones and set some (good) times … but she’s been able to win so many great races at this level for a reason and I’m sure she can go on with the job tomorrow.”
Trainer of King Mufhasa, New Zealander Steve McKee, thinks the race will develop into a shoot out between his eight-year-old gelding and More Joyous.
“She’s the one we are more worried about rather than the (lightweights),” McKee said.
“You know a horse like More Joyous can go out and do it whereas the others promise to do it and some will and some won’t.”
