Top Melbourne apprentice Katelyn Mallyon is the new rider for smart sprinting mare Vain Queen in the Group 1 $500,000 Darley Goodwood (1200m) at Morphettville on Saturday.
Katelyn Mallyon and Vain Queen, above, winning at Flemington in June, 2014. The pair are back together in The Goodwood at Morphettville. Photo by Race Horse Photos Australia.
Mallyon replaces the injured Nicholas Hall who has been aboard Vain Queen at her two recent starts for a second to Lucky Hussler in the Group 1 $400,000 Brown Baldwin William Reid Stakes (1200m) at Moonee Valley on March 27 and an unlucky seventh to Miracles Of Life in the Group 1 $400,000 William Hill Classic (Registered as Robert Sangster Stakes) (1200m) at Morphettville on May 2.
“It’s a great thrill to get the ride especially on a live chance as well,” Mallyon told AAP.
“She was unlucky I thought not to win last start.
“Hopefully we can draw a nice barrier and the horse seems to be going really well.
“It would be lovely to see her win a Group One as she really deserves it.”
Caulfield trainer John Sadler admits that he made a tactical error in having Vain Queen ridden back in the field from a wide barrier in the Sangster Stakes and in hindsight should have insisted on going forward.
“The pace in the Sangster wasn’t on,” Sadler said.
“Not that I like riding her that way but I should have taken it up and gone forward.”
Mallyon is no stranger to Vain Queen and has recorded one win from one ride on the Artie Schiller mare when she was too strong for The Thief and Shanghai Warrior in an 1100m Handicap at Flemington in June, 2014.
The talented apprentice has only recently returned to saddle after a fall at Moonee Valley two months ago and is very excited to get a chance to ride in the Group 1 Goodwood.
The well performed Vain Queen is a winner of seven races from fifteen starts with her best win was with Damien Oliver on board in the Group 3 $200,000 G.H. Mumm Stakes (1100m) at Flemington during the 2014 Melbourne Spring Carnival.
Mallyon was quick to get back into the winning list following her injury forced layoff with a double at Caulfield on May 2 on Black Vanquish in the Listed $120,000 Thoroughbred Club Cup (1200m) and on Durendal in the $80,000 Canaccord Genuity Handicap (1200m).
Then at Flemington last Saturday she was in the winner’s stall again on Face Forward in the 1200m BenchMark 75 Handicap for the fillies.
Mallyon was the winner of the Melbourne apprentice jockey’s premiership in 2011/2012 and again in 2013/2014 and has ridden ten metropolitan winners in an interrupted 2014/2015 season.
