Christian Reith hopes his knack for winning feature races at provincial tracks for Darley will continue when he rides Raspberries in the Rowley Mile at Hawkesbury on Saturday.
Darley’s head trainer Peter Snowden has plenty of entries at the stand alone meeting and with stable jockey Kerrin McEvoy riding in Adelaide, Reith has picked up some good mounts.
He will partner Raspberries in the Listed Rowley Mile (1600m), Pied A Terre in the Listed Hawkesbury Guineas (1400m) and Screen in the Listed Darley Crown (1300m).
Reith last rode Raspberries in a race in late 2010 but has galloped the four-year-old mare recently at trackwork.
Her trackwork has been “faultless and sharp” according to Reith who believes she should perform in the $150,000 Rowley Mile.
“She’s been working well at home and I’m looking for a sharp improvement with her on Saturday,” Reith said.
“It looks a good race for her and everything is going along well.
“I can’t fault her so she just has to turn up on raceday.”
From 17 starts, Raspberries has claimed six wins and five placings.
She’ll be up against nine rivals in the Rowley Mile, including Fast Clip and Western Symbol for leading trainer Gai Waterhouse.
Reith has had plenty of opportunities from Snowden over the past two seasons and has been riding work for him twice a week since the start of the year.
“He (Snowden) asked me to come in and ride a couple of mornings a week and I’m happy to do it,” Reith said.
Reith has had a particularly good run aboard Snowden-trained mares.
He has claimed black type races aboard Shannara and Kanzan at the past two Hawkesbury Cup day programs and also won Snowden a stakes double at Scone last year aboard Shannara and Dysphonia.
Most recently, he took out the Group Three Birthday Card Stakes at Rosehill in March aboard Celts.
“I’ve had a good strike rate with the mares (for Darley), obviously Shannara and Celts and horses like that,” Reith said.
“Hopefully I can continue the good winning strike rate.”
Snowden has a great record at the stand alone Hawkesbury meeting.
He trained a double last year, including the trifecta in the Darley Crown, and the year before he had four winners.
Snowden is again set to be strongly represented on Saturday with up to 13 runners.
