Australian jockey Vlad Duric will this Saturday make a pitstop visit back home, his first since beginning his current Singapore stint in February this year.
The Melbourne rider was given the call-up to ride the Gai Waterhouse-trained Excess Knowledge at this Saturday’s Cox Plate meeting in the Group 2 Moonee Valley Gold Cup (2500m).
Currently second on the Kranji log, Duric will not miss any Singapore meeting as he will ride on both Friday and Sunday and will do what other regular Aussie overnight frequent flyers like Corey Brown and Glen Boss do – the “airport rush” ie squeeze that lightning hop-over in Australia with barely a breather in between the two meetings.
Duric certainly does not mind the hectic schedule, especially when this one in particular will lead to the race all Australian jockeys dream to win one day.
“I was originally meant to just ride Excess Knowledge in the Melbourne Cup (November 1),” said Duric, a Caulfield Cup winner with Master O’Reilly in 2007, but who has yet to capture the race that stops a nation.
“But Edward Frew, Gai’s racing manager rang me and told me they wanted me to ride him in the Moonee Valley Gold Cup this Saturday.
“He’s a lovely big horse that I rode in work last Spring, and he went on to run seventh in the Melbourne Cup with Kerrin McEvoy.
“He ran a nice third to the favourite Almaldin in the (Group 3) Bart Cummings (2500m) a couple of weeks ago. He would like a bit of rain as he likes a soft ground.”
Besides the English entire by German sire Monsun, Duric has also picked up the ride on Crafted for Morphettville trainer John Hyam in one of the undercard races. Duric may hail from Melbourne but he has struck a bit of a successful rapport with Waterhouse when Sydney’s premier lady trainer sends her horses interstate, having won the Group 1 Robert Sangster Classic (1200m) aboard Driefontein at Morphettville in 2014.
Currently two wins behind long-time leader Manoel Nunes (59 wins versus 57), whom he actually edged past for a while, before the baton was handed back to the Brazilian a couple of weeks ago, Duric is looking forward to the trip, but is at the same time not losing sight on the title fight, which may turn into a three-cornered fight with Danny Beasley nipping at their heels on 56 wins.
“It’s going to be a close fight. Manoel has got his rhythm back and Danny is getting all the good rides these days, he could be the smokie!” said Duric.
“I was really flying for a while, riding trebles one after another, but then it went quiet for a while, but I have a decent book of rides this weekend, and let’s hope I can pick up a few winners or two.
“Hopefully, we don’t get suspended and we all have a fair go. It’ll be an exciting race to the line.
“But in the meantime, it’ll be nice to go back home for these Spring Carnival races and it doesn’t get any better than the Melbourne Cup.”
Duric has a book of 11 rides this weekend of which the likes of Keltic Karma and Taichi Belt on Friday and Chariots Of Fire, Waipakihi and Raise No Doubt on Sunday figure among his main chances to bump up his score.
