Cameron to ride 'the Hoof' in Sydney

Matt Cameron has been confirmed as Hasselhoof's rider for the star four-year-old's Sydney campaign.

They have the perfect record together with six straight New Zealand wins, including the group two Rich Hill Stud Mile last time out and a performance that convinced the connections of the boom galloper to change tack.

"We were going to run him over 2200m on Karaka Million night, but we decided that would be the wrong thing to do after he won that mile so brilliantly," said Chris Gibbs, who prepares Hasselhoof with Donna Logan.

"His next start will be in an open mile at Randwick on February 6 and then the Parramatta Cup over 1900m a fortnight later," Gibbs said. "Matt will be going over to ride him, which is great.

"The horse has still got a lot to learn so it's small steps at the moment - the big plan is to go to Melbourne in the spring and this trip will help him." While the upcoming Sydney campaign has been set at two starts for now, options will be kept open.

"We will throw in nominations for the bigger races like the Doncaster and the Queen Elizabeth - we'd look pretty silly if he really came up and we weren't in," Gibbs said.

The son of Tavistock, whose half-brother (Lot 168) by Rip Van Winkle will be offered during the Premier Sale at Karaka by Pencarrow Stud on January 25, also shares favouritism at $8 for the group one Auckland Cup, but he is a highly unlikely starter.

"He could possibly come back and run in the weight-for-age 2000m race (the group one Bonecrusher NZ Stakes) at Ellerslie, but we have to wait and see how things go in Sydney first," Gibbs said.

- NZ Racing Desk