Jockey confident of outsider?s chances

Hamilton
Matamata trainer Jim Gibbs tells a great story about his former apprentice rider Reese Jones.
Gibbs was doing some fencing and had misplaced his hammer, when a teenage Jones came past and offered his help. Gibbs had all but given up hope of finding it but within minutes Jones had found the hammer and reported to Gibbs: "Here's your hammer boss; my mother always told me I was a good looker."
Appearances aside, the story says a lot about Jones, these days a senior jockey and tomorrow charged with handling Miss Potential in both horse and rider's biggest race, the A$3 million ($3.22 million) Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in Melbourne.
Brimming with confidence, 33-year-old Jones is rarely without a word or an opinion, qualities which make him ideally suited to the big occasion and to his role as the northern president of the New Zealand Jockeys' Association, but which have equally led him to conflict in the past.
"I'm an aggressive rider and I am confident," Jones said this week.
"There are no accolades for running second. I've done a lot of top level riding for Jim Gibbs, Roger James, Tony and Lou Cole and Michael Moroney and Andrew Scott. They put me on because I'm at my best at group (race) level, and that's what I enjoy best.
"I'm cheeky, I'm cocky, I'm confident. I've always seen myself as a horseman before I see myself as a jockey. At the end of the day, I ride my own race. I do this not for the money but because I love it. I was born into racing and I love it."
Jones has the ability to match it with the best in the saddle.
From about 4000 rides, Jones has racked up more than 400 wins, 22 in group or listed stakes' races. He out-rode his apprentice claim in just over 18 months and won his first group race aged 18.
In the past couple of seasons, Jones has forged a formidable combination with Waikato mare Miss Potential.
Together they have won the group one Mudgway Stakes (1340m) and the group three races of Queensland Racing Winter Stakes (1500m) in Brisbane and the Gasmate Stakes (1600m) at Te Rapa in Hamilton.
The Cox Plate will be her ninth group one race and Jones said he has no intention of letting the big occasion influence his approach to the race.
"It's just another 2000m race. Whether it's a maiden race or a group one, you approach them all the same," Jones said.
"You read the form of the others and then you read your own form, and then you ride a good race. That's what you are paid for. The stake money is only relevant when you come back to scale.
"I'll just ride my horse to the best of my ability because I know she'll race to the best of hers. I just hope we have some luck and the others don't. We pushed the favourite (Starcraft) to a neck at a mile, so on that she'll be competitive. As long as she comes back in one piece, I'll be happy. I love the mare."
Jones was nearly in tears at Tauranga 20 months ago when Miss Potential broke a leg during the Tauranga Classic. At the time it seemed unlikely she would be saved, let alone race again, but true to her uncanny resilience Miss Potential was back winning at the Te Teko trials less than seven months later. In her first raceday start back she won the Mudgway Stakes at Wanganui.
She heads into tomorrow's race with two second placings to Starcraft over 1400 and 1600m, an unplaced run in the Epsom Handicap (1600m) after injuring herself on the plane trip to Sydney and a gallant third placing in the Canberra Cup (2000m).
Miss Potential has been the centre of controversy as some rival trainers consider she will not see out the 2040m of the Cox Plate.
Clinton McDonald, the trainer of Regal Roller said: "My tip is she knocks up at the 400m and is beaten 17 lengths. I just hope she doesn't take anyone down while she's in reverse."
Jones replies: "Sure, her best form has been at shorter distances but she's done enough to have her chance in the field.
"She never goes a bad race; she always puts her best foot forward. I've given up predicting how she'll run because she never stops surprising me." ? NZPA