THROUGH THE RIDER'S EYES - SHOOT OUT ON SCHEDULE

By Stathi Katsidis | Friday, October 8, 2010

Stathi Katsidis rode the most winners in Australia last season. His results included a shared Brisbane Jockeys Premiership, the third time he has lifted that title. ‘Through the rider’s eyes’ - the personal blog of the champion jockey Stathi Katsidis - will appear on HRO every Friday, race-riding commitments permitting.

Almost everything I’ve done this season has been based on Shoot Out. Five runs into his campaign and the horse is flying and I could not be more confident as we head towards our main targets of the Cox Plate and the Melbourne Cup.

It has been an interesting journey so far. Runs have been viewed by various parties as being surprising, disappointing, good, competitive … while my rides in two instances attracted heaps of criticism, but none of this has fazed the Shoot Out team as we remain absolutely focused on our goal.

For the record though, let’s just re-visit the action since Shoot Out kicked off his Melbourne campaign on July 31.

First-up (when winning the Group 3 Bletchingly Stakes over 1200m) … I suppose for a lot of people it was a bit unexpected, especially because he nearly led.

He was sitting second. But Johnny (Wallace) hadn’t done a lot with the horse on purpose.

When I did trial him at Doomben beforehand he was running second in a trial and that trial was won by a horse called The Chanster, which we all know is a horse that leads easily in the fast 1000m races, but always gets run down. Sometimes gets run over and just gets caught on the line.

In a 900m trial he is virtually uncatchable, but Shoot Out ran him to a length … or a length-and-a-half in that trail. So we knew he was going to run well first-up.

Anyone who asked me, I would be saying he would be hard to beat.

Second-up (when winning the Group 2 Liston Stakes over 1400m) was even more of a surprise. He was still racing keen and we were four wide with cover on the best part of the track.

After that John and I knew that he would be looking for further, but his next start was in the Group 2 Memsie Stakes (in which Shoot Out finished third behind So You Think and Whobegotyou) was only over 1400m.

John did say to me when I went out … he said, look, try and stay as close to Typhoon Tracy as you can … and So You Think obviously.

That’s what I did and I came back and said, look, bad ride. I should have just let him relax and come back. I was four deep that day with no cover and that was a major factor.

It was the best part of the track out where I was, but I should have just grabbed him straight away and that’s when I said, bad ride. I’m very sorry.

Some people said, at the 700m when the horse dropped the bit, that I should have been pushing forward, but that sort of goes against everything we’ve been training him for.

What John’s been doing with him is trying to get him to relax. By then I was four deep the trip and I would have been forcing the horse six, seven, eight … ten wide on the corner and hunting him.

I know the horse very well. He hates being ridden around corners and he likes to be held on to for as long as he possibly can.

So, some people say it was a bad ride … not because I was so wide, but because I didn’t show aggression from the 500. I say it was a bad ride because I should have went back early.

You know, we are trying to teach the horse to relax for the Melbourne Cup and the Cox Plate, so there is a structured theory behind all of this …

I know the horse better than all the criticising journalists, especially some of the more outspoken ones like the Callanders, and some others interstate.

I know the horse inside out. They can say it was a bad ride from their point of view, but they don’t have the total knowledge.

So while I accept their criticism, I think if they went through his racing plan for this campaign with me, they would better understand. The best journalist is an informed journalist.

Then the next one (when Shoot Out finished third in the Group 3 Dato’Tan Chin Nam Stakes over 1600m behind Whobegotyou and Typhoon Tracy) the critics, to some degree, came out and said that ride was worse than the Memsie ride.

They said the fence was no good that day … more so from about the 500m. (I agree with this theory).

The reasons I chose to stay on the inside are: The horse is a hard-pulling horse and that was his first time around Moonee Valley. I had an opportunity to go to the fence and I took it, so we could have something to follow around the track.

They criticized it saying I didn’t have an opportunity to go out when I wanted, but at the 800m any good video watchers would be able to see that I forced Zipping out and I was out and I could have gone out three wide if I wanted to.

But, bear in mind again, the horse did gallop around Moonee Valley on the Tuesday morning and he got a little lost. Dan Wheeler couldn’t get him to go his normal fast gallop speed. Shoot Out ran slower times compared with previous gallops.

This is what went through my mind in a milli-second. I can get out here at the 700m and be three wide without any cover and ride the normal good Moonee Valley race or I could follow these horses up and hope for a split.

I chose to follow them up and wait for a split because, for one thing, I didn’t want the horse to have a hard run and get out into the open and possibly get lost as he did in his track gallop.

Even this last weekend (when Shoot Out again finished third in the Group 1 Turnbull Stakes over 2000m behind Zipping and Shocking) when everybody was very happy with my ride.

They said I rode the perfect Melbourne race … but you’ll see once Shoot Out is out, even though I might have hold of him, if he is out and exposed, he doesn’t finish off as good as when you hold him up.

So bearing all that in mind, that’s why, even though I was in the worse going on the inside (at the Valley) in the Dato’Tan … maybe I could have went out there and got into the good part of the track, but I thought my ride was good for a horse like Shoot Out on the day.

The winner of the 1000m race before me, Hay List, raced on nearly the same part of the track as me. He raced three wide down the straight, I raced two to three wide, but it’s different for horses at the end of a longer race.

They are going to feel that softer ground more than they are in a fast race.

So there is a theory there.

It’s great to have the support of John, Graham and Linda Huddy all the way through. They are connections confident in my ability.

I’ve made two mistakes according to the media, but it’s not the media who own the horse, who run the horse and who know the horse very, very well.

I accept criticism, but I think the media should get all of the connections’ point of view before commenting on the big races.

I take full responsibility for a bad ride, but there is only one there.

Look, I hate making errors and I hate getting beaten. So I’m always doing my best to avoid that.

Because of the way I have handled Shoot Out, in his recent runs, and of course the way John Wallace has been training him, he has finally started to settle in his races.

From a Melbourne Cup and Cox Plate view, this is absolutely fantastic.

The horses that have beaten him home this prep (So You Think, Whobegotyou, Shocking, Zipping, Typhoon Tracy) are the absolute best. There are no horses out there who are better than these horses. They are all within half-a-length of each other.

Some people will probably think Shoot Out had his chance on the weekend. Some people may say if he is as good as we think he is, maybe he should have run over Zipping, but Shoot Out is absolutely flying and I know there is still lengths up his sleeve.

At least on the weekend people saw Shoot Out fighting to the line. He and Zipping were going at each other. Zipping … at the end of the day … the older war-horse got the better of him.

I myself know that if I ride Shoot Out a certain way … just a little bit quieter again than that and don’t expose him until inside the 300, he can get the job done.

In the Cox Plate I’ll be looking to follow … I’ve got about three or four horses in mind that I want to follow into the race, but I won’t have him out until probably as we start approaching that last corner.

He’ll be flying late and hitting the line better than he did on the weekend.

John said that the horse is better after the Turnbull than he has been after any of these runs. Sometimes it takes him a couple of days to get over runs, but he was well on the Monday (after the Sunday run).

He couldn’t be happier with him. John’s got him right where he wants him to be.

It's a great feeling to be this confident about the upcoming races. These are the races that we all dream about.

I truly think we will be in the finish of the Cox Plate and that we can win the Melbourne Cup.

The Cox Plate is known as the best race, for the best horses in Australia. This being said, Shoot Out, is only just being beaten by the horses that are favourites for this race. I think with the right run in the Cox Plate, we will be hard to beat.

From a tactical point of view, for the Cox Plate, Whobegotyou will loom up to win the race coming to the corner. I’ll be looking to use him as a tow and then try to sling-shot past him.

If I can’t find his back, which I’m pretty confident I’ll be able to do, there’s another few options, like Typhoon Tracy for one. With the way they are riding her now, she would cart me right up to the 400m mark. I’d probably want to be getting off her back then.

In the Derby (which was Shoot Out’s second Group 1 win in his last prep) I only got out with 250m to go and it was amazing.

That, by the way, is the hardest ride in a race I have ever had. When I rode Shoot Out the start before in the 2000m race (the Rosehill Guineas) he did pull harder, but, in the Derby, when I rode him, he pulled so hard he dislodged my shoulder.

You’ll see on the video that, when I pushed him through the gaps, I went to give him a back-hander, but the tendon in my shoulder had been stretched out so much that my arm just sort of swung there.

So I just put the whip away and rode him hands and heels. I must have looked very confident.

We’ve come a long way since then. He is actually probably more of a hands and a heels horse anyway.

That’s something I will keep in mind next time we get in a battle down the straight, but I don’t think that will happen again because I’ll ride him in a way we’ll be shooting past the other horses.

I don’t expect to be in a dog-fight again, but we’ll be prepared for anything.

Now you can see why I'm very excited about the next couple of races.

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