The trainer of the AJC Australian Derby favourite is happy for his horse to be reduced to a support role on Saturday.
“I don’t mind playing second fiddle to a champion like Black Caviar,” John Bary, who prepares the outstanding New Zealand galloper Jimmy Choux, told AAP.
“Hopefully in Jimmy Choux I’ve a got a champion in the making but I’ve got to say I’m almost as excited at getting the chance to watch Black Caviar in the flesh as I am at having a runner in the Derby.”
The unbeaten Black Caviar will be having her first start outside Victoria when she runs in the TJ Smith Stakes.
Jimmy Choux is all the rage for the $1.5 million Derby at Randwick after his triumphant Australian debut in the Rosehill Guineas.
He firmed even more while he was resting in his Warwick Farm stable as Derby hopefuls fell by the wayside after the running of the Tulloch Stakes at Rosehill last Saturday.
“I guess the bookies, the punters and the form analysts have figured there isn’t maybe much more to come out of the woodwork,” Bary said.
Bary said Jimmy Choux was given some extra work last week to keep the New Zealand Derby winner “ticking over”.
“He’s in fantastic order and if anything he has probably come on since the Guineas,” Bary said.
“There’s no sign that he’s gone backwards.”
“The trip to Australia seems to have agreed with him because it has helped him mature.”
Jimmy Choux will be among the first track workers at Warwick Farm on Tuesday with Bary sticking to a proven routine.
“He’ll work over 1200 metres and it will be much the same work as he did before Rosehill and when he won the Derby at home,” Bary said.
Race jockey Jonathan Riddell has flown in from New Zealand to put Jimmy Choux through his paces on Tuesday.
Jimmy Choux has a stranglehold on Derby betting with TAB Sportsbet quoting the Kiwi star at $2.20 ahead of Tuesday’s barrier draw.
He is a clear-cut favourite ahead of Retrieve and Shamrocker who share the second line of betting at $8.
Retrieve needs to rebound from a heavy Tulloch Stakes defeat while Shamrocker is winning support after beating the colts in the Australian Guineas before her brave third in the Rosehill Guineas.
As expected, trainer Mike Moroney confirmed Rosehill Guineas disappointment Absolutelyawesome would be fitted with blinkers for the Derby.
Absolutelyawesome finished almost five lengths behind Jimmy Choux when eighth at Rosehill.
AAP TURF
