“The good New Zealand sprinters are coming across to Australia and doing a job and I think he can, too. Overpass is clearly the one to beat but I think Crocetti can be right up there.”
Williams has a good line on the form, as he rode Crocetti’s rival in New Zealand’s major sprints this summer, Alabama Lass, to win a A$500,000 ($536,000) Listed race at Flemington last month.
“Good horses are good horses wherever they come from, and Danny [Walker, trainer] is happy with the horse, so I think we might surprise a few people.”
Straight after tonight’s race, Williams will board a plane to Hong Kong, where he has seven rides at FWD Champions Day, including Mr Brightside in the HK$24m ($5.16m) Champions Mile.
It will be the international debut of the Kiwi-bred and educated Mr Brightside and a chance to put an exclamation mark on his career.
“I just love the horse, how could you not? I’ve ridden more Group 1 wins on him than any other horse and he gives you his all every time he goes to the races.
”Mr Brightside looks well equipped to handle Sha Tin’s unique demands, as he has the tactical speed to use barrier 2, with his toughest rival local Voyage Bubble for expat jockey James McDonald.
“They’re both very good horses and it won’t be easy to beat him [Voyage Bubble] on his home track but Mr B is a special horse and he looks fantastic.”
Williams will also partner Hong Kong Derby winner Cap Ferrat against El Vencedor in the HK$28m ($6.02m) QEII Cup.
That makes for a long weekend for the leading Australian jockeys such as Williams and McDonald, who ride on Saturday, fly to Hong Kong and then ride late in the meeting on Sunday.
“It is busy but you just have to manage your schedule,” Williams says.
“I took Friday off riding because I knew how big a weekend I had coming up. But we’re very privileged to be able to do it.
“We race Saturday, go to the airport, do some form study, have a sleep on the plane and you wake up close to landing in Hong Kong.
“Then I often get an hour’s sleep at the hotel and then adrenalin gets you through the rest of the day.”
Meanwhile, Cambridge trainer Stephen Marsh, who trains El Vencedor, will have his eyes fixed closer to home on Saturday, with a huge team at Te Rapa.
Marsh has been thrilled with El Vencedor’s progress in Hong Kong after a slight hoof issue this week and was buzzing after the big horse drew barrier 1 in Sunday’s 2000m Group 1.
“Everything that has needed to happen this week has happened and the draw gives him a real hope,” says Marsh.
He has four starters in Saturday’s $100,000 Windsor Park Breeders’ Stakes at Te Rapa and was stunned when told Velocious had opened at $7.50.
“I thought she would be favourite on her record and last-start win and that’s a great price for her.
“She had her final fast work on Wednesday and it was super, and her and Adalio are our two best hopes in what will be a really good race.”
The Te Rapa meeting also hosts the $150,000 Travis Stakes, which looks a tricky puzzle for punters, with so many different form lines.
Saturday’s other domestic meeting at Riccarton boasts three black-type races, headed by the $120,000 Canterbury Gold Cup, in which veteran Harlech is beautifully suited by the weight-for-age conditions but perhaps not so much the potentially heavy track.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals
