Pair primed to add to Ipswich success
IPSWICH
WHEN it comes to Ipswich’s annual feature race day, Michael Cahill and Jim Byrne have been dominant jockeys over the past seven years and both have great chances to build on their records on Saturday.
In what is an imposing statistic, Gold Coast-based Cahill (nine winners) and Brisbane rider Byrne (eight) have ridden 28 per cent of the winners in the 60 races run on this day since 2013.
Furthermore, of the three feature races, they account for eight of the 21 winners (38 per cent) in that time. Cahill has won the Gai Waterhouse Classic five times, four since 2013 on Peron, Real Surreal, Magic Alibi and Ready To Prophet. He also won the 2017 Cup on Self Sense.
Byrne first won the Ipswich Cup on Ardeed back in 1995.
His feature Ipswich wins since 2013 have been aboard Jazz Song (2014 Waterhouse), Alma’s Fury (2014 Eye Liner) and I’m A Rippa (2018 Eye Liner).
Byrne has another strong book of mounts headed by Pennino in the Eye Liner and Amicitia in the Gai Waterhouse, while Cahill rides top fancy Multaja in his quest to win that race for a sixth time.
Ipswich is a very different layout to the other tracks used for metropolitan racing in Queensland and both jockeys say they enjoy riding the “quirky” circuit.
“My first big winner coming to Queensland was when I won the Eye Liner on Corregidor in 1997. It helped me on my way a bit,” Cahill said.
“It’s been a good meeting to me over the years.
“Ipswich is probably a track that benefits from a jockey having local knowledge.
“Because it’s a bit of a smallish track, there’s the perception they need to be up on speed, but you don’t need to ride it that way. You can be patient.
“It’s a good track, I enjoy riding there, especially when the rail is in the true position.”
Byrne is closing in on nearly 600 career winners at Ipswich and says there’s always one thing he is mindful of when riding there – momentum.
“I’ve said time and time again you have to understand the make-up of the track,” he said.
“I’ve always believed from the half mile (800m) home you have to be uninterrupted. You have to make sure you don’t have your momentum stopped.
“It’s a very short straight, so you know you have to have a plan in place and understand how the race has been run.”
Byrne said officials had worked hard at making improvements to the track in recent times.
“These tracks, they race week to week and they get beat up and they get tired. They are doing their best to make it better,” he said.
“It has a couple of little issues, they are trying to work through them. It raced really well last time and hopefully it’s the same (on Saturday).”