Weights indicate Master Jamie will be hard to beat in the $300,000 The Jewel but it will still be a long five weeks for trainer Graeme Green.
Master Jamie turned in a sterling performance to win the QTIS Three-Year-Old Handicap (1200m) at Eagle Farm on Saturday with 61kg, giving most of the field seven kilograms.
Master Jamie has now won 11 of his 14 starts and is earning a reputation as one of the best horses to come out of central Queensland.
Green has made a great fist of training since returning to Rockhampton after stints as a race course manager at several centres.
He must now nurse Master Jamie until the Three-Year-Old The Jewel on March 14.
The Jewel is a set weights race with colts and geldings carrying 57kg and fillies 55kg.
“Master Jamie can have a good few days in the paddock and then we will get him ready for The Jewel,” Green said.
Master Jamie has ditched his habit of sometimes being tardy at the start and it is paying off.
“He’s a gutsy horse that’s all I can say and pure guts wins him races under big weights,” Green said.
“If he’s allowed to dictate, he’s just a bulldog. He hates horses going past him. Next start when he comes back to set weights, we might see a serious horse.
“He’s one of the cleanest winded horses I’ve had anything to do with, plus he’s one of the most laid back chilled out horses you’ll ever meet.”
Jim Orman, who took the ride when regular jockey Les Tilley was unavailable, is a big Master Jamie fan.
“He is a very tough horse,” he said.
“He just led on his ear and every time something comes near him, he just keeps kicking.”
