Shawn Mathrick daring to dream of Group 1 success with Cause For Concern and Jamie Kah in Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield

Shawn Mathrick was happy to get a 4am phone call from Jamie Kah’s manager but will be even more thrilled if Cause For Concern can land a Group 1 win on Saturday.

Jamie Kah hugs trainer of Cause For Concern Shawn Mathrick after winning The Damien Oliver. Picture: Michael Klein

Shawn Mathrick needed not worry about a jockey to ride Cause For Concern in the Group 1 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes with Jamie Kah’s manager on the phone at 4am last Sunday week.

Kah rode Cause For Concern a treat to win the Group 2 The Damien Oliver on Derby Day and wanted to maintain the association into the 1400m Group 1 at Caulfield on Saturday.

“She was rapt, she said he was a nice horse and her manager was ringing me at 4am on the Sunday morning, he was making sure she was staying on if we were going again,” Mathrick said.

“I think he (Cause For Concern) really suited her (Kah), she rode him a treat, and he went well for her.”

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Cause For Concern, drawn sweetly in barrier eight, is a $15 chance with TAB in an open market outside the $3.80 favourite Magic Time, who must overcome gate 15.

Equal second favourites I Am Me and Strait Acer, both $8, round out the top three with a further five runners priced between $10 and $15.

“A few of the other good horses have drawn very wide so there should be plenty of speed in it, which should probably suit us,” Mathrick said.

“With a bit of luck we’ll be there when it matters … I think that race on Saturday, it’s an even race, so I just think he gets his chance to win a Group 1 on Saturday.”

Jamie Kah riding Cause of Concern to victory in The Damien Oliver on Derby Day. Picture: Vince Caligiuri/Getty Images

Cause For Concern worked on his own Wednesday morning at Cranbourne for the first time since The Damien Oliver after being largely kept to swimming and light duties.

Mathrick credited the farm life to Cause For Concern racing 11 times – four wins – the past six months.

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“Last week I swum him and we worked him at the Carrum beach … I left him until today, they watered the track, he was the only horse on the track this morning,” Mathrick said.

“He went fantastic, he pulled up great, he was happy, he’s come home, I checked him five minutes ago and he’s already licked his drum clean.

“He’s out on an acre paddock all day, got horses all around him … if the weather is good he doesn’t come in, he stays out there on the grass all night.

“I just think it really helps them mentally, I don’t know if they really know they’re in work, just getting ticked over and enjoying life.”

Mathrick, a rodeo cowboy “about 30kg ago”, said the possibility of a breakthrough Group 1 success would reward for the horse not himself.

“You keep spruiking them, you just admire them so much and you just want them to win that sort of race,” Mathrick said.

“People ask me, ‘What’s it going to do for you?’, it will never change me as a person, it’s just another race but to say, ‘I’ve got this horse and I think he’s this good’, for him to win would be fantastic.”

Originally published as Shawn Mathrick daring to dream of Group 1 success with Cause For Concern and Jamie Kah in Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes at Caulfield