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MELBOURNE - Vlad Duric declared it was worth the pain after his biggest triumph in yesterday's Caulfield Cup on Master O'Reilly.
Duric, 30, said he was running on adrenaline after dieting for the past month to shed up to 4.5kg to ride the five-year-old son of O'Reilly in both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
"I am really hurting now but the adrenaline is keeping me going," Duric said.
"It is a dream as you are growing up to win races like this."
For the past month, Duric has lived mainly on brown rice, vegetable juices and water to ensure he would be able to ride Master O'Reilly at 50.5kg in the Caulfield Cup.
His task was made marginally easier when weights for the cup were raised a half-kilogram to ensure the topweight Tawqeet carried 57kg.
When he wasn't riding trackwork, Duric would run and walk up to 13km. As well as other exercises, he said, he would run for 40 minutes on the treadmill every night.
Duric normally rides at a minimum of 54.5kg in winter and 53kg in spring but knew to stay with Master O'Reilly he needed to do more.
Last month, he celebrated his most important success on Bon Hoffa who carried 53kg to give him his first Group One win in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes (1400m) at Caulfield.
He also finished fourth on him in last Saturday's Toorak Handicap before winning the Group Two Winning Edge Presentations Stakes (2400m) on Master O'Reilly.
Duric reflected briefly on his riding career which started as a 15-year-old.
He rode his first winner at Stawell in July 1994 before winning two Victorian country apprentices' premierships and two Victorian country jockeys' premierships.
But despite his success on the country circuit he found it hard to break into the city ranks.
"For whatever reason I never got an opportunity," he said.
"People paint a perception of how you are. But I always believed in my ability."
Duric yesterday said he would have a quiet night recuperating and celebrating with family and a few friends.
"I am not a party animal. I am 30 with three kids," Duric said.
The good news is that he can now go back to eating relatively normal meals.
Master O'Reilly has 51.5kg in the Melbourne Cup thanks to a 1.5kg penalty imposed after he won the Winning Edge.
On the strength of Saturday's win he is likely to carry even more weight in the Cup now.
Racing Victoria's chief handicapper Greg Carpenter will decide tomorrow if he will penalise the gelding again.
AAP
