The 2013 Victoria Derby form shows that Complacent can win the three year old feature staying blue riband at Flemington on Saturday after coming up with a horror barrier draw.
Victoria Derby winning jockey Larry Cassidy says Complacent can win from wide gate. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Victoria Derby winning jockey Larry Cassidy won in 1998 when riding the John Hawkes trained Arena under the Crown Lodge banner before it was sold to Darley Australia and is confident that jockey Kerrin McEvoy will be capable of overcoming the initial setback.
Trainer Peter Snowden prepares Complacent out of his Crown Lodge stables at Warwick Farm and is searching for his first win in the Group 1 $1.5m AAMI Victoria Derby (2500m) under the Darley Australia banner.
Cassidy, who is now based in Brisbane, was able to overcome a wide barrier on Arena who had to jump from gate fourteen and after taking up a rear position weaved his way through the field to score a two and half length victory over Sky Heights.
“Kerrin is a top staying rider,” Cassidy told Racenet.
“No matter what you do you’re riding for luck from that barrier.”
“If you go back you need pace and runs through the field.
“If you go forward you need to get in quick or you’ll get trapped wide and people will say you were too complacent.”
Cassidy said that initially he was disappointed after Arena draw so poorly but owner Jack Ingham devised a plan to ride the colt quietly and they got the desired result.
“At first, Arena’s barrier was disappointing but I spoke to Jack Ingham and he told me to come out quiet, go back to last and find the fence,” Cassidy said.
“So I just came out quiet and did exactly what he said.
“I manoeuvred around a horse at the 600 metre mark but came back to the fence. It wasn’t until I came up behind the eventual runner-up (Sky Heights) that I came away from the rail permanently.”
McEvoy is feeling confident and is going into Saturday’s race with an open mind, will see how the race pans out in the first 200m and hopefully he can get a couple of early breaks going past the winning post the first time.
“It can be a messy race in terms of horses there that don’t run the trip and you can get back and have horses that don’t take you into the race,” McEvoy told Sky Racing HQ
“There is going to be a couple of plans in my mind going forward and one of those plans will be getting him in a nice spot, a nice rhythm and switched off to run the trip out.
“The last thing that you want to be doing is too much work to go forward and then you are a spent penny by the time you hit the home straight.
“The best possible route is what I am out there to obtain on Saturday and that is what I will be doing.”
In more recent times 2010 winner Lion Tamer jumped from gate fourteen with Hugh Bowman aboard and 2008 winner Rebel Raider with Clare Lindop aboard had to overcome the outside gate in the fifteen horse field.
Complacent has drifted in the Victory Derby market order since the barrier draw and after being the early favourite for the race is now the second pick at $5.50 behind the John O’Shea trained Savvy Nature at $4.80.
Local hope Polanski is next in the betting at $6.50 just in front of Snowden’s second pick San Diego at $7 while his third runner Tupac Amaru is marked as a $16 chance.
