Ally shuns photo ‘jinx’

This is the photo Sky Racing host Ally Mosley hopes will break a longrunning racing jinx.

“There is an old racing omen that the girl with the horse photo before the race jinxes the horse,” Mosley said on Thursday.

“But I think it is a model curse so if you are not a model the jinx won’t stick,” she said after donning a Rebecca Vallance pearl beaded dress to pose with five-year-old stallion Alpine Edge.

Trainer Toby Edmonds hopes Alpine Edge will go two from two and win the QTIS Open at the Magic Millions race day on the Gold Coast for the second year running on Saturday.

“I don’t believe in jinxes,” he said confidently. “He will do his best and he doesn’t know anything about jinxes either.”

Mosley is also conflicted in the $3 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic on the Gold Coast tomorrow.

Her partner Luke McDonald’s Melbourne Cup winning jockey brother James will be in the saddle of second favourite Spywire. But she has tipped Highness with good friend Tommy Berry in the saddle.

“I saw Tommy on the Gold Coast earlier this week but he flew home just to give Highness a gallop,” she said. “He really believes in this horse.”

The jockeys love to race two-year-olds because of the untapped potential that can take them all over the world if they find the right one.

Magic Millions ambassador and former rugby player Mike Tindall, who has been at the 10-day carnival on the Gold Coast with wife and royal Olympian Zara Tindall, will be watching the 3YO Guineas very keenly.

Tindall sold Sydney Bowler at the sales as a yearling and said he is eager to see how his former brown colt will perform with Jason Collett on board. And even if it rains there will be no chance of a repeat of last year when the flooded track saw racing stopped after the third race. A $60 million upgrade has put in new turf and drainage every 2.5 metres.

Gold Coast Turf Club executive manager Ian Brown said the course was in fantastic shape.

“Last week we had 200mm of rain in 36 hours and we raced on a good four just five days later,” he said.

The upgrade has also put in floodlights that will see the introduction of a new night race at the Magic Millions next year.