Originally Published February 8 2022
WHEN the Kah’s away the Jyes will play.
And play hard.
Boon rider Jamie Kah stunned the racing world last season when she landed 105 city winners, ending Brett Prebble’s 20-years at the top of the wins list with his 99.5 victories.
But Kah went to Sydney at the weekend and Kerang’s Jye McNeil went to Caulfield; where he took the course apart, landing five city winners for the first time in his career.
It also opened the floodgates for his shot at cracking the ton himself, after he had gone 14 days with just a single salute to the judge on a city track.
His four winners at Pakenham two weeks ago was also his fourth time with four – but Saturday put him in a whole new stratosphere.
“I did it (four winners) a couple weeks ago at Pakenham and I’ve barely ridden a winner since,” McNeil said.
“Things were looking a little bit rough there for a week or two, but I can’t say the same today,” he grinned.
Saturday had a very familiar start for McNeil, he came stone cold last on Let’s Say Grace and was thinking he needed more than prayer to end his drought.
At that stage, the dream of riding 100 winners for the season was as far from his mind as you could get. He would have settled for one winner and called it a good day out.
Until the very next race, when he hopped on Worthily for the Maher-Eustace stable – and suddenly the 27-year-old from Kerang could do no wrong. The odds-on favourite got up by the shortest possible margin, but he got up and suddenly McNeil had got his mojo back.
In the third, Miss Five Hundred was booted home by three quarters of a length and McNeil’s roll was stretching as fast as his winning margins.
Sebonack carried him to the line by more than a length in the fourth of the day and by the time McNeil had climbed onto Generation for the fifth, all the other jockeys were looking at each other and wondering if they should bother.
And the answer would have been ‘no’ as McNeil and Sebonack finished 1.25 lengths clear of the field.
It was a day McNeil would remember for a long time, and although he missed out in the next two races, the penultimate on the card was about to turn it into a day he would never forget.
On 11/1 shot Melba Storm, McNeil did everything perfectly to hold off 12 other horses and land his first five on a city track – giving him 44 city winners and 25 weeks to rack up the next 56. If he can retain this form anything will be possible for the 2020 Melbourne Cup winning jockey.
“I haven’t set one yet (target), we’ll wait until it gets a bit closer, but it would be great to get towards the ton anyway,” McNeil said post-race.
“It’s definitely got my confidence up and it’s great to have good rides for good people and great trainers, it makes it a lot easier,” he said.
“It’s a great day, it hasn’t sunk in quite yet; but it’s a day I’ll remember, that’s for sure.”
Incredibly McNeil almost made it an even half dozen for the day with former Singapore horse Threeandfourpence ($19) in the last.
The long shot was flying at the finish but ran out of track to finish second behind Nicolini Vito.
But it is probably Melba Storm that McNeil will remember most.
Although starting at $11, McNeil said he went into the race figuring he could ride five for the day when he was legged aboard Melba Storm.
“Trent (Busuttin, trainer) was very confident when he rang me from the sales this morning,” McNeil said.
“He said she’s going really well on the track and if she hadn’t drawn a wide barrier, he’d have been extremely confident,” he added.
“She jumped really well and took that barrier out of the equation in the early stages. She was very tough over the concluding stages. A great performance.”
Yes, it was.
But not as great as Jye’s high five.
