McNeil eyes metro jockeys’ title after Caulfield blitz
On the back of riding five winners at Caulfield on Saturday, Jye McNeil now has his sights set on winning the Victorian Metropolitan Jockey Premiership.
McNeil holds a clear lead as of February 8, with 44 metropolitan wins in the saddle since the 2021/22 Australian racing season commenced on August 1 last year.
The young hoop sits 11 wins ahead of champion rider Damien Oliver, who missed Saturday due to a minor injury he suffered last Thursday at Warrnambool.
McNeil will celebrate his wedding on Sunday, but there will be no time for a break, as he is determined to maintain his lead all the way through the remainder of the racing season.
“At this moment in time, it’s fully focussed on riding, and riding as many winners as possible,” the Melbourne Cup-winning rider told Racing.com.
“Obviously if the opportunity comes up through suspension or something like that – touch wood it doesn’t happen – but that could be a good time to take a break…otherwise, Jess and I will be waiting until winter.”
🏇🏁 WINNER 🏁🏇
WORTHILY (Point Of Entry x Vignette) extends late at Caulfield and lands the win 💪
Beautifully ridden by @JyeMcNeil and excellently prepared by the @cmaherracing team 🙌
Congratulations to our connections, plenty more to come from this guy 👏👏 pic.twitter.com/SF6HaDY8CP
— Australian Bloodstock Updates (@ausbloodstock2) February 5, 2022
McNeil kicked off his five-timer in race two on Saturday, guiding the Maher & Eustace-trained Worthily to a narrow win over 1800m.
While it was a tough watch throughout for punters who took the odds-on quote about the ex-European, McNeil got the gelding out with enough time in the straight to score by one-tenth of a length.
McNeil then partnered Miss Five Hundred to a comfortable last-to-first victory over 2300m in race three, before riding a black-type double in the next two races aboard Sebonack in the Group 3 Chairman’s Stakes and Generation in the Group 3 Manfred Stakes.
Sebonack was on debut for the Michael, Wayne & John Hawkes stable, putting in an impressive performance to win by 2.75 lengths.
"Sebonack is a class animal."
The 2YO Capitalist colt impresses on debut 🔥@HawkesRacing @JyeMcNeil pic.twitter.com/oSuNvSmJO6
— Racing.com (@Racing) February 5, 2022
“He had trialled up really nicely, and he trialled up with Godolphin’s (Renosu) who was leading,” the jockey said.
“They went to the line together in their most recent jump-out at Flemington, and I thought him being the favourite was obviously going to be the biggest challenge, and when I went past him so quickly, I knew that my horse was going to be very hard to beat.
“He’s a beautiful, big, strong horse, a great athlete and I think he’ll be really developing as his prep unfolds.”
With the Blue Diamond Stakes less than three weeks away, McNeil believes Sebonack is the no.1 seed of the two-year-olds that he has partnered on raceday, at the trials and at trackwork.
“From what I’ve ridden, he’d be ahead for now,” McNeil said.
“Obviously we’ve still got a couple of weeks to go and we never know what’s going to jump up or pop out, so we’ll be hopeful.
“But I think at this stage, he seems a class individual, and I feel as though with the way he was in the early stages of that race, he’s going to be better over 1200m.”
Sebonack is now the $7.50 second favourite for the Blue Diamond, with Jacquinot the outright favourite at $5.50 with Sportsbet.com.au.
The market for that race is expected to change on Saturday with the running of both the Colts & Geldings Blue Diamond Prelude and the Fillies Blue Diamond Prelude at Caulfield.
Jacquinot is the $2.50 favourite in the boys’ edition, while Miss Roseiano is the $4 favourite in the ladies’ race.