Two big winners from Warrnambool’s three-day carnival in country Victoria will join forces at Rosehill.
Irish jockey John Allen captured Australia’s most gruelling race when he partnered Regina Coeli in Thursday’s Grand Annual Steeplechase while trainer Darren Weir prepared Tall Ship to win the Warrnambool Cup.
On Saturday Allen heads to Sydney to ride the Weir-trained Live For Today, a $21 chance, in the Blackwoods.com.au Hcp (1500m).
The pairing is not a new one with Allen among Weir’s most trusted track riders, but what is new is Weir heading to Sydney for an out of carnival race.
Weir said his racing manager Jeremy Rogers found the race and said it was a good option for Live For Today and the trainer had no hesitation giving Allen the job at Rosehill.
“He’s a champion bloke but also a very good rider,” Weir said.
Although Allen is a leading jumps jockey, he is equally adept on the flat as he showed when he guided the Ciaron Maher trained Wanna Dance to victory three races before his Steeplechase success.
Allen can ride comfortably at 58kg but after a night of celebrations he said he would need to sweat off a little excess weight to ride Live For Today at 57kg.
“I’ll have to sweat a bit to ride it at that weight but I’ve ridden 57 a few times this year so it won’t be a worry,” Allen said.
“I celebrated the victory a bit more than I thought I would but I’ll be right for Saturday.”
Allen has confidence Live For Today will perform well on the soft track.
“He’s going up looking for a wet track more than anything else and is going well enough I think,” he said.
