BROWNIE'S BLOG - TRAVELLING TO NZ IN SEARCH OF BACK-TO-BACK WINS IN THE KARAKA MILLION AT ELLERSLIE
By Damian Browne | Thursday, January 21, 2016
Damian Browne, reigning Queensland's Jockey Of The Year, is rated right up there with the best jockeys in Australia and, as such, his highly informed views make essential reading for anyone in the racing industry. Damian’s column, ‘Brownies Blog’ appears exclusively on HRO
It’s always exiting to have an opportunity to ride in a $1 million race and I’ve got another one of those days coming up at the twilight meeting at Ellerslie on Sunday in the Karaka Million, New Zealand’s richest race.
Liam Birchley and I will be trying to make it back to back wins in the race with O’Reilly Cyrus.
We won it with Hardline last year and, of course, Liam also won it 2010 with Sister Havana so he knows a thing or two about getting a two-year-old across the Tasman ready to win. I think the worst result he has had in the race is a second (with Sarge In Charge in 2009).
O’Reilly Cyrus won her only start on December 4. Funnily enough that was the same race that Hardline won the previous year in his first start on his way to the Karaka Million. They won in similar fashion too so that was a good pointer that O’Reilly Cyrus was heading in the right direction.
There has been a difference though in that, while Hardline had a second start in Sydney before going on to tackle the big one, Liam decided to just give O’Reilly Cyrus another barrier trial as a final tune-up.
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That trial, which O’Reilly Cyrus won, took place on January 12. I was on her back for the first time in the trial.
From what I’d seen of her before I rode her I thought she looked like a really lovely filly with plenty of scope.
Liam added blinkers to her for the trail to keep her a little bit more focussed. He felt that she was just losing concentration when she won.
Liam’s a master at working those sort of things out, so he added those and it seemed to switch her on in the trial and I couldn’t be happier with the way she responded.
The only real unknown now is the travel factor... with a two-year-old, particularly with a filly.
She only left on Monday and had to first go to Sydney on the way, so it is going to be a big trip for her.
Obviously things are going to depend on how well she travels ... and, as always, a bit of luck in the running.
But, for now, we couldn’t be more confident with what we have.
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O’Reilly Cyrus is currently priced as second favourite. Monolo Blahnig is a short-priced favourite.
I’ve still got to have a good look at the final field.
It is always hard to line up the form when they bring their horses here and when we go there as well, but in the past in has been that out two-year-olds are a little bit in front of them ... and Liam’s proved that on countless occasions.
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It might be of interest to some people to know that O’Reilly Cyrus qualified quite comfortably for a place in the $1 million line-up with stake earnings of $12 800.
According to Liam if you’ve got horse sitting around the $10 000 mark you are pretty safe.
I think that’s because in New Zealand their main day each week carries stakes of $20 000 with probably $12 000 to the winner. That’s for a Saturday win.
We’re whinging about our stakes here (in Queensland) but we are racing for that on a Wednesday.
Obviously we still need our stakes to be as high as they can be in order to stay competitive with other states in Australia, but basically I think that fact that you can get into a $1 million race in New Zealand with only $12 800 in stakes show that there are always people and places either better off and worse off than you are and it is probably always going to be that way.
Liam has been very clever targeting this race over the years and he deserves the rewards he has got both for his strategy and the execution of his plans.
Here’s hoping we can add to his honour list on Sunday.
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O’Reilly Cyrus is my only ride of the day. I did have three or four other offers but I’ve got to ride 54.5kg and I thought I’d rather just concentrate on getting the job done on her.
As it turns out, I only get into Auckland at three o’clock or thereabouts on Sunday.
Don’t worry. That’s plenty of time.
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Just in conclusion ... I have had a lot of queries through the HRO mailbag asking me what I think of riders who fall foul of the ‘prohibited substance’ rules.
All I will say is that every jockey knows we can be tested anytime, anywhere.
We are all aware of that and it is up to people to make the right decision or the wrong decision.
It is up to each individual and nobody who is caught out can ever put the blame elsewhere.
It is a decision that people make.
We know the rules.
There are consequences for making the wrong choice.
The bottom line is, you will be caught if you make that choice.
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