Racing: Brown may ride Shoot Out in Melbourne Cup

Shoot Out is on track for a Melbourne Cup start. Photo / Getty Images

MELBOURNE - Corey Brown missed out on a Cox Plate victory in his mate Stathi Katsidis' memory, but may be riding his way to Melbourne Cup glory.

Wearing Katsidis' riding silks, Brown stepped in and rode Shoot Out to fourth place in the $3 million Cox Plate at Moonee Valley on Saturday.

It was a tough and emotional day for all those connected to the horse, after the Queensland jockey's sudden death on Tuesday.

Shoot Out was the sentimental favourite, but when you are chasing a superstar in So You Think, it was always going to be a tough ask.

"He tried really hard, but when the speed was clapped on, chasing probably Australia's best horse, it was an effort," Brown said.

He acknowledged that he'd never gone into a race under this much pressure.

He hadn't even ridden last season's AJC Derby winner before climbing aboard for Australia's weight-for-age championship.

"It's added pressure, but like I said once I got on, it's game on," Brown said. "He had a good run, the winner's just too good.

"To his credit though he ran more like a Melbourne Cup horse than a Cox Plate horse."

Trainer John Wallace said he couldn't be happier with Brown's ride.

"I thought it was a terrific Melbourne Cup trial," he said.

Wallace plans to run Shoot Out in the Mackinnon Stakes on Derby Day next Saturday before taking him back to Flemington on the first Tuesday in November.

Brown will again ride Shoot Out next Saturday and looks likely to pick him for his Melbourne Cup ride.

"I'd say so yes, at this stage I will."

Wallace said it had been a tough week and a hard day.

"I'm so used to seeing Stathi riding him around in there," he said before the race.

Katsidis' jockey mates honoured him on Saturday by wearing black armbands in the first race of the day across Australia.

Nash Rawiller, who rode Elite Falls to victory in the first race at Moonee Valley, said Katsidis was on the minds of all his colleagues.

"We're all a pretty good group of friends and to see something like that ... he's only just younger than me.

"It's just really hit home. When I told my wife, she burst into tears."

Katsidis had been AJC Australian Derby winner Shoot Out's regular rider.

The 31-year-old was found dead by his fiancee Melissa Jackson in their Brisbane home on Tuesday.

The Moonee Valley Racing Club included a tribute page to Katsidis in its race book.

"On track he was fiercely competitive, always ready to speak his mind and with a passion for the industry," the tribute from the Australian Jockeys Association read.

"Those who knew him well held him in the highest regard away from the track as well.

"He was a genuine, caring and generous young man for whom family meant everything."

An autopsy has failed to determine the exact cause of death.

Katsidis' funeral is expected to be held in his home town of Toowoomba tomorrow.

In other Cup news, So You Think's Cox Plate triumph has propelled him to outright favouritism to give trainer Bart Cummings his 13th win in the Melbourne Cup.

The dominance of his second Cox Plate win on Saturday prompted TAB Sportsbet to firm So You Think to $3.50 from $5 after he was equal with 2009 Cup winner Shocking who remained at that price.

Although he has never run beyond the 2040m of the Cox Plate, So You Think will be prepared in the Cummings' mould by contesting the Mackinnon Stakes next Saturday.

An essential part of the master trainer's planning for the Cup is that a horse should go into the race with 10,000m in his legs.

So You Think has had four starts this preparation, winning the Memsie Stakes (1400m), the Underwood (1800m) and the Yalumba (2000m) before the Cox Plate.

The Mackinnon will bring him up to 9240 metres, a little short of ideal but probably enough for the horse now being showered with superlatives ranging from freak to the second coming of Phar Lap.

Cummings will be happy if he is the second coming of Saintly who completed the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double in 1996 and although reluctant to single So You Think out among some of his past greats, he has him in the top echelon.

"They've all been champions," Cummings said.

"He's up there in the top four or five."

Should he win the Mackinnon, So You Think will go into the Cup at just his 12th race start and will have to contend with some hardened stayers from here and overseas.

- AAP