AFL premiership coach Denis Pagan to lead jockeys’ metro team in next month’s Flemington twilight meeting
Two-time AFL premiership coach Denis Pagan will return to coaching next month but his new gig is a lot different to what he’s been involved with in the past.
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When he coached North Melbourne to two premierships in the 1990s, Denis Pagan had the services of one of the all-time greats, Wayne Carey.
In his new guise as a jockeys’ coach, Pagan will have at his disposal two superstars — Craig Williams and Damien Oliver.
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Pagan was announced as the coach of the seven-jockey metropolitan team to take on a country team in the Jockeys Challenge Trophy at Flemington on Sunday, February 9.
All seven races on the card will be run down the famous straight. The meeting will start at 4pm and, with 30 minutes between races, end at 7pm.
The other members of the strong city team are Dwayne Dunn, Ben Melham, Linda Meech, Mark Zahra and Luke Currie.
Pagan was already talking up his squad, saying it would be hard to beat.
“The country team will have their work cut out for them,” the aspiring racehorse trainer declared.
Pagan said he couldn’t wait to coach again and get his competitive juices flowing.
Former North and Geelong player Liam Pickering will coach the country team.
His seven jockeys are Jye McNeil, Harry Coffey, Daniel Stackhouse, Damien Thornton, Jarrod Fry, Dean Holland and Jason Maskiell.
Pickering said his team contained some of the most talented and underrated horsemen in the land.
The city team will ride horses with odd-numbered saddlecloths and the country team the even numbers. The minimum riding weight is 57kg.
Points will be awarded to the first four placegetters in each race and the last race will be worth double points.
VRC chief executive Neil Wilson said he was looking forward to the new race day.
“Flemington Twilight Race Day is an exciting development given it is the only race day held at Flemington on a Sunday and it offers an entire card of straight racing,” he said.
All gate takings will be go to the Bushfire Disaster Appeal.