Collett can collar the double
Lady Luck may need to be along for ride but two biggies is on for jockey Super Sam
Sam Collett has been at the top of racing’s tree long enough to know how this works. Already a premiership champion, winner of the last two Auckland Cups and one of the most popular jockeys in the country, Collett knows the first day of 2021 could go different ways.
In the dream scenario, Collett could have two perfect rides and snare the $200,000 Railway with Levante and the $100,000 Rich Hill Mile with Coventina Bay.
Then there is the other scenario. Both finicky mares could meet traffic problems from draws that are less than ideal and there may not be a hell of a lot Collett can do about it.
Levante coming from what will be close to last to win the Railway at just her seventh start would be the performance New Zealand racing needs to usher in the New Year and Collett knows she has the horse.
She just needs the tempo and the gap.
“What she did at Pukekohe last start was amazing, the sectionals she ran,” says Collett. “That was as fast as I have gone on a horse so we all know she is good enough but barrier one isn’t ideal and the best I think I can hope for is having one or two behind us at the 800m point.
“So I need them to go hard and hopefully the gaps will come later. I’d love to be able to get on to the back of a horse like Avantage and get that cart into the race but luck is going to come into play.”
So is Collett tempted to try something new and kick up, trying to stay handier?
“No, I don’t think that suits her. So I am resigned to being back near last but that is okay.”
As tricky as Levante’s task is, Collett takes confidence from the fact she only has 10 rivals and carries just 53.5kg. And the skills of trainers Ken and Bev Kelso.
“When I rode her in trackwork the other morning, she couldn’t be better. They have done a great job with her and she is spot on. I’d love to win the Railway but I’d also love to win it for the horse and for racing because I think it would be really exciting.”
It would also complete a unique family double, with Collett’s mother Trudy Thornton riding Santa Monica to win Ellerslie’s greatest sprint just two years ago.
If Levante can settle near last and roar past the defending Railway champ Julius, Telegraph winner Avantage and a horse talented enough to finish second in the Sires’ Produce in Sydney as a two-year-old in Summer Passage, Collett is in the for the ride of her life.
She faces a similar task with Taranaki mare Coventina Bay in the Rich Hill Mile, even though the pressure is not quite as intense at half the stake and almost twice the bookies’ quote of Levante.
Coventina Bay is another late
closing rocket who tends to get well back but that didn’t stop her running down Prise De Fer in the J Swap Sprint at Te Rapa on December 12 and the pair meet with the same 5kg difference in their weights tomorrow.
“Just like Levante, I would have preferred a different draw but because she is stepping up to the mile
maybe she can settle a little closer than usual,” says Collett.
“It really is an all or nothing play for Robbie [Paterson, trainer] because she is first time at Ellerslie and first time at the mile. So that comes with its challenges but we just need an ounce of luck. Robbie gives me a lot of confidence because he has the horses fit then leaves the riding up to me.”
Coventina Bay may be under the odds.
So too may be Levante.
But if Collett has Lady Luck along for the ride at Ellerslie tomorrow, she has her shot at a sensational double and a great start to the New Year.