Oliver’s fans and rivals queuing up to spoil his swansong
Legendary jockey set to take his final ride on Munhamek in Ascot’s $1.5 million Gold Rush
Some of Damien Oliver’s biggest fans will be out to spoil his retirement party at Ascot today as another hero of the west – Playing God (Blackfriars) – lines up to continue his run of success at Perth’s summer carnival.
Oliver bows out in another race named in his honour, the Damien Oliver Gold Rush (Gr 3, 1400m), an event boasting $1.5 million in prize-money despite being only on the third rung of the black-type ladder.
The champion 51-year-old jockey will ride the Nick Ryan-trained former Britain and Hong Kong runner Munhamek (Dark Angel), who was last night rated a $7.50 chance in a wide open affair. Oliver, who’ll start his seven-ride day on 3,186 career wins, will have to overcome the third-widest gate in 16-horse field for the last race on the card if he’s to bow out a winner on Munhamek.
While Ryan is reasonably confident of his chances, after giving the eight-year-old four weeks to acclimatise to Perth in preparation for this race, standing in the way of Oliver and a victorious swansong are a host of local hopes alongside a second eastern states raider in Ayrton (Iffraaj, $7).
And among the locals are three offspring of Playing God who’ll be out to extend the stallion’s golden summer as he pursues his second straight WA sires’ title: Comfort Me ($7), Bustler ($9), and last-start Jungle Dawn Classic (Listed, 1400m) victor Baby Paris ($17).
Playing God has had five winners of six stakes races in Perth since November 11, headed by Bustler’s Railways Stakes (Gr 1, 1600m) success. And Darling View Thoroughbreds’ sire will record a fresh black-type winner – the 17th of his career – if the luckless Comfort Me can prevail today.
Prepared by young boutique trainer Rhys Radford, the seven-year-old gelding has run six stakes placings, including seconds in the past two years’ Railway Stakes, after drawing barrier 15 each time.
He was seventh in this year’s edition, enduring another torrid run from gate 15 yet again, but has finally drawn low, in three, for tomorrow. Shaun McGruddy jumps aboard for the first time today after Peter Knuckey – who’s ridden him in half of his 34 starts and his past 11 – interestingly decided to stick with Baby Paris, who has barrier two.
“He’s coming along well, and we’ve finally got the good barrier we’ve been waiting for,” said Radford, who trains around a dozen horses on a private farm at Oakford, on Perth’s southern fringe. “From gate three I hope we’ll be about to run in the first four or five and be close to the rail.
“His run in the Railway was enormous, being caught wide again from gate 15 and beaten only about three lengths. He ran third in this race last year, when he drew badly again in gate nine, and was only beaten half a length behind The Astrologist and Kissonallfourcheeks, who are both very good.
“I think he’s a good chance, but it’s a very good race with a very even field.
“I’m one of Damien Oliver’s greatest fans, but I’d love to be the one to knock him off in this race.”
Comfort Me has won seven races, but none since graduating to stakes grade two years ago. Still, the consistent gelding’s earnings have surpassed $1 million in his three runs this campaign, which have also included thirds in the Eurythmic Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) – after drawing gate 12 of 13 – and the Lee Steere Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m), when he had seven of 13. Each race was won by two more rivals today in, respectively, Karli’s Karma (Deep Field, $31) and Valour Road (Frost Giant, $9.50).
Trainer Luke Fernie was one rival who noticed Comfort Me’s better barrier fortune today. He’ll saddle Ripcord (Written By), the three-year-old gelding favourited by 54 kilograms under the weight for age conditions, who was a joint $6 favourite last night.
Alongside him in betting was 52 kilograms bearer Super Smink (Super One), but while trainer Daniel Morton has booked Melbourne’s Craig Williams for the ride, the filly will sweat on gaining a run as second emergency.
While Fernie believes Dom To Shoot (Shooting To Win, $11) and Bustler will face a tough task backing up and dropping from 1800 metres to 1400 metres after running first and fourth in last Saturday’s Northerly Stakes (Gr 1, 1800m), he said Comfort Me shaped as a strong chance “now he’s finally drawn an alley”.
Still, Fernie wouldn’t swap any rival for Ripcord, who he bought for $40,000 at the Magic Millions sale on one of his east coast weanling raids. The gelding will spring from barrier nine, with Clint Johnston-Porter aboard for the third successive time.
Ripcord, out of the Not A Single Doubt (Danehill) mare Single In London – whose four career wins came at Ipswich – has been in sparkling form this campaign. Third in Super Smink’s Karrakatta Plate (Gr 2, 1200m) as a juvenile last April, this time in he won his second race in the Placid Ark Stakes (Listed, 1200m) third-up, before his last-start fast-finishing third in the Winterbottom Stakes (Gr 1, 1200m) on December 2, won by Overpass (Vancouver).
“He’s flying,” Fernie said last night. “It was a great run in the Winterbottom, after striking interference. He savaged the line like he wants 1400 metres. It’ll be his first go at the trip, but the way he finished that day fills me with heaps of confidence that he’ll run the 1400.
“The thing that makes me most confident is he’s only got 54 kilos. Hopefully he’ll be midfield, maybe three-deep with cover. He lets down like a rocket, and the horses behind him are going to have to be pretty sharp to run him down, especially since most of them have five kilos more.”
Proud West Australian Fernie has followed Oliver’s career closely, and wished him luck in his farewell day of riding today, to an extent.
“I’ve been fortunate to grow up through a period where you’ve got Damien Oliver up there as a genius, really,” Fernie said of Oliver, who was born in Perth but moved to Melbourne early in his glittering career punctuated by 129 Group 1 wins – the most by an Australian jockey.
“You’d always watch him. He’s a big deal, always on the best horses, had the most Group 1s.
“Still, I’d happily spoil his party tomorrow. But I’ll invite him to the after-party, that’s for sure.”
As for Oliver’s final mount, his former riding colleague Ryan – 15 years his junior – is relatively warm on his chances, despite the wide barrier.
Munhamek has won four of 17 starts since landing in Australia, and will today try to make Ascot his fifth winning venue. He resumed with a third in The Damien Oliver (Gr 2, 1400m) at Flemington on Derby Day – in which the man himself finished sixth aboard second-favourite Vilana (Hallowed Crown) – before a tenth-placed finish after drawing wide as a $20 shot in Caulfield’s Rupert Clarke Stakes (Gr 1, 1400m).
“He’s good, we’re happy with him,” Ryan said. “We’ve targeted this race for a while. He’s only had the two runs through the spring. We wanted to see him run well in those and he did.
“And then it was always the plan to give him plenty of time to settle in over in Perth. We flew him there four weeks ago, and some eastern states horses who arrived at the same time and ran that weekend didn’t go so well. So hopefully our bloke’s time over there will stand him in good stead.”
Ryan booked Oliver for his final ride after the veteran jockey piloted Triple Missile (Smart Missile) to tenth in the Winterbottom.
“He wanted to see how Triple Missile went, so we were waiting on that. Thankfully it’s worked out for us, with Triple Missile not running in this race,” said Ryan.
“Olly knows our horse, he’s ridden him a couple of times, and of course you couldn’t want a better jockey. I rode alongside him for many years, after I started my apprenticeship at 15, and of course he’s one of the best there’s ever been.”
As for what he’ll be telling Oliver before his final ride?
“There’ll be no instructions,” Ryan said. “It’s Damien Oliver. He can do what he wants.”