Kathy O’Hara is hoping to play her part in continuing Gai Waterhouse’s run of feature race success at Rosehill on Saturday.
O’Hara has been called on by Waterhouse to partner Group One winning stayer Herculian Prince in the Listed Lord Mayor’s Cup (2000m).
Waterhouse has prepared a winning treble at the past six Saturday meetings in Sydney, including a host of feature race victories, and Herculian Prince is the early favourite to snare the trainer another stakes race.
O’Hara, who joined the Group One winner’s club aboard Ofcourseican in the Coolmore Classic during the autumn, hasn’t ridden Herculian Prince since the gelding’s first Australian start in November 2009.
Herculian Prince’s last win was the 2010 Group One Metropolitan Handicap but he has returned to some of his best form this campaign including a last start second to stablemate Western Symbol in the Listed JRA Plate (2000m).
O’Hara says her record for Waterhouse has been quite good when the trainer has called upon her at various times during her career.
“It’s just on and off but I do a bit of riding for her while the boys are away for the carnivals and I’ve had a bit of luck for her,” O’Hara said.
Herculian Prince is known for his frontrunning style and O’Hara enjoyed success last year on the Nick Olive-trained Voice Commander, also a frontrunning middle-distance galloper.
O’Hara partnered Voice Commander to all-the-way wins in the Listed Frank Underwood Cup at Rosehill and last year’s Listed Wagga Gold Cup, both over 2000m.
She flagged the likelihood of attempting something similar on Herculian Prince.
“He’s just a typical Gai Waterhouse-type runner and that’s probably how I’ll ride him,” O’Hara said.
“You know what sort of horse you’ve got underneath you with Gai’s horses and you know they are going to keep finding.
“You can probably put the test to them early and you’ll test everything else out before you test your own out. That’s probably the attitude I’m going to go in with on a horse like him.”
Herculian Prince is one of two Waterhouse-trained runners with Tommy Berry to ride Kinnersley who has 54kg while Herculian Prince has 59.5kg.
“He’s got a bit of weight but I’ll hope to counteract that by letting him stride along and letting him be comfortable,” O’Hara said.
Herculian Prince was the $3.60 elect with TAB Sportsbet on Thursday ahead of Skyerush at $4.
