MASTER JAMIE - IGNORE HIM IN THE KING OF THE MOUNTAIN AT YOUR OWN PERIL

By Graham Potter | Saturday, December 30, 2023

The ever-resilient Master Jamie is the only runner from outside of South-East Queensland in the lineup for the $750 000 King Of The Mountain ... and, as always, the Graeme Green galloper will deserve every respect when the big race is contested at Toowoomba on New Year’s day.

An eighteen-time winner ... that’s right, eighteen ... Master Jamie has continued to do himself and his connections proud ... since winning the QTIS Breeders’ Plate by 5.75 lengths as a two-year-old on debut at Rockhampton back in November 2018, all the way through to his game enough effort at Eagle Farm a week ago in the Falvelon behind Zarastro ... that result coming five years after he first saw race action.

“He won the Breeders as a two-year-old. He was beaten second-up but then came back after a spell and won five-in-a-row to round off his two-year-old career,” said Green.

“He’s had metropolitan wins ... including the Gateway with Michael Rodd in the saddle, which earned him a start in the Stradbroke. He won the Tattersalls at Rocky carrying 65.5kg on his back and he’s won two Rocky Cups ... amongst others.

‘He’s been a brilliant old horse, actually he is not an old horse he’s only a seven-year-old,” continued Green. ‘He is just a marvellous horse. He has been sound the whole way through. I’ve never had an issue with him.

“With regard to his first-up run in the Falvelon, we don’t get the number of barrier trials in Rockhampton, and he went into the Falvelon with just two trials under his belt. I would have loved to have had three, but we didn’t have the time.

“He just peaked on his run and faded a little bit late, but that sort of run will top him off very nicely for Monday’s race.

“It is the first time I have ever backed him up so quickly. I’ve usually given him fourteen days between runs. He’s been up in Toowoomba since the Falvelon. He has done exceptionally well.

“We galloped him during the week. His gallop was very strong. It was enormous. He wouldn’t have blown a candle out at the end of it.

“He is not a one-dimensional horse. He can take a sit if he has to ... which Bubba (Tilley) is prepared to do if something wants to take us on again, but if he is allowed to dictate in front ... as you’ve seen in the last couple of Rocky Cups ... he is very hard to get past then.

‘They were over 1600m, but he has got an incredible cruising speed and he can quicken off that high cruising speed ... and that’s what has kinda broken the hearts of some of those who have tried to maintain that cruising speed he has and then try and quicken off it.

“He does that well when he is rock-hard fit ... and he is rock-hard fit.

“He doesn’t beat himself. They have got to beat him.

“Not that it is going to easy on Monday, but he is nice and bright and hopefully ready to go!”
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A side story to Master Jamie’s run on Monday will be the fact that, if he finishes in the first three he will take his prize-money earnings past the $1 million mark.

“That will be a great achievement for him,” said Green. “There had never been a horse from the Rockhampton Jockey Club ... ever ... that has been trained wholly and solely in its entire career out of Rockhampton, to pass the $1 million mark.

“Hopefully, he can do it on Monday. If not, and he comes through the race well, we’ll keep trying and he’ll have other opportunities to get there.

“He’ll tell us when he has had enough but, at this stage, he still thinks he is a two-year-old.

So how did Master Jamie find his way into the Green stable in the first place?

“We paid $10 000 for him at the March Yearling Sales,” answered Green.

“I had picked out two colts from that sale. I saw Kelly Schweida bidding on one ... and I thought I wouldn’t be able to outbid Kelly, so I bid on the other fellow ... Master Jamie. Kelly’s one turned out to be The Odyssey.” (The, now retired, The Odyssey became a ten-time winner with $1.7 million banked in prize-money).

Master Jamie, who will be ridden by his regular pilot Bubba Tilley, is a $23 chance.

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