KEY POINTS:
Not being able to find a suitable top-end rider for Keepem in Saturday's $700,000 Mercedes Derby at Ellerslie has resulted in high-profile Queensland jockey Stathi Katsidis making his first trip to New Zealand.
The Logan/Gibbs stable could not engage a jockey of choice after Keepem forced his way into the Derby field with a game win at Matamata on Saturday.
"We tried for Reese Jones, who rode him on Saturday, but missed out, then we heard Mark Du Plessis didn't have a ride, but he'd taken one when we called," said co-trainer Donna Logan.
"Then I thought of Stathi. We figured he'd suit him and the horse is going to need a good trip if he's to be competitive in a Derby, so you have to have a top rider."
Katsidis and the Logan stable have a very good strike rate.
He won on Ring Of Fire in the Tatts Cup at last year's Queensland winter carnival and had previous success for the stable with Victory Smike and Jetski.
The Logans engaged Katsidis only yesterday and he was on a flight to Auckland in the afternoon.
To get a feel for Ellerslie he will have several mounts at the special gallops session the Auckland Racing Club is putting on this morning for carnival horses.
"Then I've arranged for him to fly up here [Ruakaka] after he finishes at Ellerslie and he can ride work," Logan said. "He can't ride under 56kg, so it's important to keep him working to keep him at this weight."
To that end the stable was successful in seeking permission after rider declarations to replace Leith Innes and Allan Peard on its two horses, Cent From Above and Rock It Man at Te Rapa tomorrow.
"Allan and Leith were very obliging in standing down - Leith said he knows how difficult weight can become if you're not riding."
Katsidis hasn't ridden for two weeks, missing three Queensland meetings last week after being admitted to Pindarra, a private hospital on the Gold Coast, with a virus.
Two weeks ago his brother Michael won an interim lightweight boxing championship, defeating high-class English fighter Graham Earl in London.
It earned him a world title fight with the lightweight champion within 90 days.
"Stathi said that if all goes well for him at Ellerslie on Saturday he'll be happy to stay on for the last two days of the carnival," said Logan.
"He said Michael's back home and is also thinking of coming across to have his first look at New Zealand."
Despite a sometimes rollercoaster career and weight issues, Katsidis is widely regarded as Queensland's best jockey, one who is not afraid to make his own luck.
Keepem looked top-class material when he made a dashing winning debut on his home track at Ruakaka last year, but his subsequent form until Saturday had not been of the same standard.
Logan said adding blinkers at the weekend has made a world of difference.
"It's turned him around completely.
"He should have had them on at his previous start in the Waikato Guineas, but it was his first middle distance and I was worried - as you do - that he would over race in his first start wearing them.
"I should have put them on regardless."
Another Queensland jockey, Scott Seamer, no stranger to riding in New Zealand, has been engaged for Uberalles for the Derby.
Seamer rode Uberalles' dam Ethereal to victory in the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
Uberalles is one of six horses exempt from the ballot when the final Derby field is drawn up tomorrow morning. The others are Santagostino, Redoute's Dancer, Mettre En Jeu, Benedict and Stolen Thunder.
