Brisbane jockey Tegan Harrison is very excited to team up again with high profile trainer Gai Waterhouse when she partners Echo Gal in the Group 1 $500,000 BTC Cup (1200m) at Doomben on Saturday.
Tegan Harrison, above, will ride Echo Gal for Gai Waterhouse in the BTC Cup at Doomben. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Harrison was out of luck last week when she rode the Waterhouse trained Excess Knowledge when tenth to Leebaz in the Group 2 $358,000 All-New Jaguar F-Pace A.D. Hollindale Stakes (1800m) at the Gold Coast but will get another chance to impress the ‘Lady Trainer’ this week.
“Gai is one of those great characters in racing that I am really inspired by,’’ Harrison told The Courier-Mail.
“To just be talking to her is a real thrill for me, let alone riding for her.
“I rode a lot of her horses at track work leading up to the (Queensland) Group 1s last year and from there she has given me a few rides.
“She is someone I have always looked up to. It is great to be riding for Gai.”
Echo Gal has drawn barrier two in the fourteen horse BTC Cup field and Harrison will have to pull out something special to get the outsider home who is having her first start back since running ninth to I Am Zelady $1m Magic Millions Fillies & Mares Handicap (1300m) at the Gold Coast on January 9.
Echo Gal is the winner of four of her twenty starts in restricted grade but has been placed twice at Group 3 level during the 2015 Sydney Spring Carnival when second to Amicus in the Group 3 $125,000 Toy Show Quality (1300m) at Randwick and second to Catkins in the Group 3 $125,000 Irresistible Pools Sheraco Stakes (1200m) at Rosehill.
Waterhouse has given the Stratum mare a solid preparation for her return to the track with three barrier trials for two wins at Randwick on March 18 and April 8 followed by a second in a 1000m Wyong trial on May 22.
Harrison is yet to taste Group 1 success but had gone so painstakingly close on two occasions during the 2014 Brisbane Winter Carnival when a nose second on Temple Of Boom in both the $650,000 James Boag’s Premium Doomben 10000 (1350m) at Doomben and the $1.36m AAMI Stradbroke Handicap (1400m) at Eagle Farm.
Harrison is currently fifth on the Brisbane jockey’s premiership table with forty-one wins for the season.
