News

Webb backs Yosei to carry the load

2nd Oct 2012

Sydney Morning Herald - Warwick Barr - Tuesday, 2 October 2012

STUART WEBB fancies Yosei as a genuine lightweight Epsom Handicap chance even if he isn't quite sure if she will carry her correct weight in the group 1 mile at Randwick.

With Yosei's regular jockey Michelle Payne sidelined because of injury, Webb has again called on Glyn Schofield to ride the three-time group 1 winner.

Schofield rarely ventures into minimum weight territory these days but he will head to Randwick on Saturday with two important 52kg rides. Besides Yosei, Schofield also has the mount on Stout Hearted, one of the main chances in the group 1 Metropolitan.

''Worst-case scenario he [Glyn] will ride her at a half kilo over, which is not ideal, but he will be trying his best to get down to the 52 [kilograms],'' Webb said.

Yosei, a placegetter in the Doncaster Mile during the autumn, missed the thick end of the George Main Stakes purse with Schofield in the saddle for her Sydney return on September 22. Numerically the result looked poor but Webb said there were extenuating circumstances for her seventh of eight behind Shoot Out.

''It was a typical Sydney weight-for-age race with a very slow tempo,'' he said. ''I knew after three furlongs [600 metres] that she had no hope of winning. I was a bit in the medium range about her run but Glyn was able to put it into perspective and he was happy with the way she went through the line. Mathematically, it was impossible for her to beat good weight-for-age horses like Shoot Out and Rangirangdoo trying to chase them down.''

Yosei is a $17 chance with the TAB to win the Epsom. The Gai Waterhouse-trained Fat Al eased after his third in the Shannon Stakes last Saturday but the four-year-old still shares favouritism with Shoot Out.

Shoot Out's stablemate Rangirangdoo ($7.50) holds down the third line while Secret Admirer is at $10 to make it back-to-back wins in Sydney's premier spring mile.

Jim Cassidy has been confirmed as the rider for the John O'Shea-trained Lightinthenite.

It has been 10 long years since the veteran jockey's only win in the race when he partnered Excellerator for Waterhouse's breakthrough Epsom win.

Excellerator's lead-up form included a narrow victory in the Cameron Handicap, the Newcastle race in which Lightinthenite almost defied the pattern of racing by running on late to finish second to Rolling Pin on September 19.

Merlin Mustang, well down in the Epsom order of entry but a winner at Randwick yesterday, could be given his chance in the race if the field falls away by acceptance time tomorrow.