The Group 1 $500,000 The Tapestry Wines Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville on Saturday could turn into the battle of the girls with Jamie Kah and Kayla Nisbet both eyeing off a Group 1 victory.
Jamie Kah winning on Sistine Demon at Caulfield. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
The two female apprentices are both having their first Group 1 rides with Kah to ride the highly fancied Sistine Demon and Nisbet will be aboard outsider Pago Rock.
The Andrew Noblet trained Sistine Demon has had a dramatic rise up through the ranks with seven wins from his last eight starts and was the early favourite for the Goodwood after scoring a six lengths win with Kah in the saddle in the Group 3 $150,000 Race-Tech Victoria Handicap (1400m) at Caulfield on April 19.
And Pago Rock earned a start in the Group 1 sprint after winning with Nisbet over 1100m at Caulfield on April 19 with trainer David Hayes sticking with his apprentice on Saturday.
Nisbet knew that Hayes would be heading to the Group 1 Goodwood with Pago Rock and was very surprised and delighted that he decided to give her the ride ahead of a senior jockey.
“I knew he was going to go to The Goodwood when he won at Caulfield but I knew I wouldn’t get the ride, which I was fine with,” Nisbet told the Herald Sun.
“It was only natural if he put a senior jockey on him and I would have accepted that and I expected it, but it was a really lovely surprise when I said I had the ride.”
In a very open betting race, Sistine Demon has drifted to $9 with Ladbrokes.com.au following the barrier draw that saw the four year old come up with gate twenty, but will most likely move into eighteen after final scratching time on Saturday.
But as the speedster showed at Caulfield it won’t be a problem for him to cross the field from the wide gate in the early stages.
The Gai Waterhouse trained Driefontein heads the wide open Goodwood market at $7 and will jump from gate three while Pago Rock has been marked as a $26 chance and will appreciate the solid pace in the capacity field and will be working home hard as he did at Caulfield.
Kah took out last seasons’ Adelaide jockey’s premiership but has been based in Melbourne recently while on loan to Caulfield trainer Mick Price and a win in the Group 1 Goodwood would be a tremendous boost for her career as she prepares to enter the senior jockey ranks at the beginning of the new season on August 1.
“I can come out of my time now and become a senior rider and after that I’ll probably move over here (Melbourne) permanently,” Kah said.
“I wanted to come here while I had a claim and try to make a name for myself and everyone wants to come to Melbourne because there’s more racing and bigger prizemoney.”
Local sprinting star Miracles Of Life is also well up in the market order at $7.50 with last year’s Goodwood winner Platelet at $8 and Pago Rock’s stablemate Gregers, with Dwayne Dunn to ride, is marked as a $10 chance after running third to Driefontein and Platelet in the Group 1 $400,000 Sportingbet Classic (1200m) at Morphettville on April 26.
