Shane Dye expects another Gai Waterhouse runner to serve it up to Pride Of Jenni in the Cox Plate
Legendary Cox Plate winning jockey Shane Dye believes yet another Gai Waterhouse horse could spice things up for frontrunner Pride Of Jenni on Saturday.
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Shane Dye believes freakish frontrunner Pride Of Jenni will face a repeat of last Saturday’s tactics in the Cox Plate, with the legendary jockey tipping Gai Waterhouse to spice things up again.
Jockey Adam Hyeronimus and the Waterhouse and Adrian Bott-trained Major Beel matched motors with Pride Of Jenni in the first 400m of the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes at Randwick, causing Pride Of Jenni’s owner Tony Ottobre to take the matter up with stewards.
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Dye, who won the 1995 Cox Plate aboard Octagonal, expects Waterhouse and Bott’s French-bred import Royal Patronage to give Pride Of Jenni some curry up front in the Cox Plate and not let Ciaron Maher’s mare get away with an easy lead.
“The Cox Plate looks similar to last Saturday for Pride Of Jenni – there is no way that Royal Patronage will let her get too far away,” Dye told Racenet.
“In the King Charles, it was Major Beel who had pace early, this time it will be Royal Patronage.
“Pride Of Jenni certainly won’t be leading by 20 lengths in the Cox Plate.
“She is at her best when jockeys miss the boat and don’t show the initiative to chase her mid-race.
“But with Royal Patronage in the Cox Plate, there is no way he will let her get too far away.”
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Major Beel was a $101 chance in last Saturday’s Randwick Group 1 when troubling Pride Of Jenni early, with the champion mare finishing runner-up behind Ceolwulf.
In the Cox Plate, Royal Patronage is the outsider in betting at $31.
Dye insisted Hyeronimus did exactly the right thing in the early stages last Saturday when he and Major Beel raced with Pride Of Jenni in the first 400m.
Ottobre took the matter to stewards but Dye said Hyeronimus had great tactics.
“He did nothing wrong,” Dye said.
“What he did was perfect.
“He went in a straight line and made Pride Of Jenni work a bit, which is what you’ve got to do.
“You are not out there to run second to her.”
As for the dramas over star Chris Waller mare Via Sistina doing extra laps at The Valley on Tuesday morning after throwing off jockey James McDonald, Dye isn’t ruling her out from winning the Cox Plate.
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The retired champion jockey has seen similar things happen and he said sometimes the horse goes out and wins … and other times they don’t perform.
“It all depends on the horse, this won’t help Via Sistina but I don’t think it will stop her from winning,” Dye said.
“But you don’t really know until you actually run her.
“I’ve seen many horses do this and come out and win and I’ve also seen many horses do this and then do no good.
“Who knows until you run her?
“But as long as her bloods are right and she has no lacerations on her, there is no reason why she can’t win.
“She had no weight on her back after this happened the other day and that’s a big thing.
“It wasn’t nearly as bad as if she had been bolting around with the weight of a jockey on her.”
Dye, who successfully tipped Romantic Warrior in last year’s Cox Plate, thinks it is a fascinating edition of the race on Saturday.
“It’s a very interesting Cox Plate – three-year-olds can always get beaten in the Caulfield Guineas but then came out and go a lot better in the Cox Plate,” Dye said.
“Broadsiding could rebound and win the Cox Plate but I have no doubt with what I have seen that the Japanese Prognosis is the best horse in the race.”
Originally published as Shane Dye expects another Gai Waterhouse runner to serve it up to Pride Of Jenni in the Cox Plate
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