The very smart Jokers Grin will not have jockey Patrick Carbery in the saddle for the first time in his career when he goes out to contest the Group 3 Colonel Reeves Stakes at Ascot on Saturday.
Carbery has ridden Jokers Grin in all of his starts to date with the pair racking up an enviable record together of eight wins and two second place finishes from eleven starts.
Carbery has had to stand down under concussion protocols having fallen from a horse at Bunbury on Thursday. Shaun O’Donnell will now take the reins on Bernie Miller trained five-year-old.
Five of Jokers Grin’s wins have come at Ascot … the biggest of those being a hard-fought win in the $5 million The Quokka where he held the Matthew Smith trained Headwall back in second place by 0.17 lengths.
After The Quokka, Jokers Grin was given a six-month break from racing, but then took up exactly where he had left off when resuming with a win in the Group 3 Prince Of Wales Stakes on November 1 … which leaves him a perfect two weeks in-between runs going into Saturday’s assignment.
Jokers Grin will face eight rivals in the Colonel Reeves Stakes with Oscar’s Fortune and Repossession again looking the most likely dangers to Jokers Grin’s bid for a hat trick of wins.
Both of these runners chased Jokers Grin home in the Prince Of Wales Stakes. Oscar’s Fortune finished second, 0.81 lengths behind the winner, and Repossession finishing third, a further length back.
Both of these runners are 2kg better off at the weights with Jokers Grin.
Repossession, a four-year-old gelding, has an impressive record of five wins from eight starts, while the more seasoned five-year-old Oscar’s Fortune is a five-time winner from twenty-one starts.
Oscar’s Fortune is trained by Dion Luciani and will be ridden by Willie Pike.
Repossession is trained by Chris and Michael Gangemi and will be ridden by Chris Parnham.