A ride Corey Brown first chased six months ago could land him one of the biggest wins of his career at Moonee Valley on Saturday.
The Melbourne Cup-winning jockey will partner Cox Plate favourite Pierro at 49.5kg but he is confident his effort to get down to the featherweight will be worthwhile.
The top Sydney jockey only picked up the Cox Plate ride on Pierro last Monday week but he first showed his keenness to partner the exciting colt while he was sitting at home suspended during the Sydney autumn carnival.
At the time Pierro was stamping himself as the star juvenile of his generation with the Group One Champagne Stakes at Randwick in April giving the colt Sydney’s coveted autumn triple crown.
“I chased it when he was winning all the big ones after the (Golden) Slipper,” Brown said.
“I texted Gai because I was suspended and sitting on the lounge at home, knowing that he would be heading towards the Cox Plate as a three-year-old.
“I texted Gai and asked her if she would like me to start losing weight for it now, and she told me I had to get to full-time trackwork.
“For mine I’ve got a lot of other stables that I ride for and I couldn’t just drop them for one horse.
“Although the offer was good, I elected to go for other rides but I was really happy to receive the phone call (last Monday week) after Craig Williams had jumped to get on Green Moon.”
Pierro has been ridden by Waterhouse’s stable jockey Nash Rawiller in his nine starts – which have netted eight wins and a second – but the light weight ruled him out of contention.
Rawiller rides champion mare More Joyous and the jockey said victory on the eight-time Group One winner would be a career highlight.
“She’s done really well since her last run at Caulfield and with an ounce of luck she’s right in the race,” Rawiller said.
