Nash Rawiller rapt to be riding champion gallopers Pierro and More Joyous THIS must make Nash Rawiller the envy of his peers. At Rosehill Gardens tomorrow, Rawiller is riding two bona fide champs - Pierro and More Joyous. Even the jockey can't believe his good fortune. "When you have two as good as Pierro and More Joyous racing in the same era, it doesn't happen very often," he said. Perhaps, Darren Beadman and Greg Childs are among the few jockeys to know what Rawiller must be experiencing. In 1996, Beadman won the Canterbury Guineas, Rosehill Guineas, Tancred Stakes, AJC Australian Derby and Underwood Stakes on Octagonal, and the Cox Plate-Melbourne Cup double on Saintly. Childs rode Sunline throughout her magnificent career and during her final season of racing in 2002, he also gained the ride on Northerly in four races, winning them all including the Caulfield Cup. Both champion gallopers are now in the Hall of Fame. Rival jockeys have become used to chasing Rawiller home when he is riding More Joyous and Pierro. He has won 17 races from 26 rides on More Joyous, and nine from 11 with Pierro. Jockey Nash Rawiller and trainer Gai Waterhouse talk tactics last month. Picture: Taylor Adam Collectively, Rawiller has won 10 Group 1 races on the champions, including seven with More Joyous. Both super gallopers are dominant favourites with TAB Fixed Odds to add to their Group 1 wins tomorrow. Rawiller is back on Pierro with the super colt rated at $1.55 for the $400,000 George Ryder Stakes (1500m), while More Joyous is $1.35 to win her third successive $400,000 Queen of the Turf Stakes (1500m). During the Sydney autumn carnival last year, Rawiller was unbeaten on Pierro and More Joyous as they dominated the features races. Pierro won five races, including the juvenile triple crown of the Golden Slipper-ATC Sires Produce Stakes-Champagne Stakes. More Joyous won all four starts, including the Doncaster Mile and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Pierro has returned in similarly dominant form this autumn, winning the Hobartville Stakes and Canterbury Stakes. Rawiller rode More Joyous in the Canterbury Stakes with the mighty mare finishing second, less than a length from her younger rival. Their clash at Rosehill two weeks ago gave the jockey a special insight into how both horses have returned this autumn. "I think both horses are going extremely well and are at the peak of their powers," Rawiller said. Nash Rawiller powers Pierro to victory at Rosehill last month. It makes them pretty damn hard to beat in anything. So, what is it like riding two of the nation's best racehorses? "They are terribly easy to ride," Rawiller said. It's a bit like driving a luxury car with a big motor - you just put Pierro and More Joyous in cruise control and they help make me look good. They just never let you down. But it wasn't always like this. When both started racing, they each had their own idiosyncrasies. Nash Rawiller rides More Joyous in a barrier trial earlier this year. More Joyous only knew one speed - flat out - while Pierro's laid-back attitude hid his potential. "On the track, More Joyous has always been a bit of a free spirit," Rawiller said. She is a lovely ride, don't get me wrong, but she will break the clock every day of the week if you let her. We always knew she was good, it was just a matter of harnessing that talent. Steve O'Halloran (stable track rider) has done most of the trackwork riding on the mare and he has taught her to settle now because as a young horse she would go too hard. Pierro is the opposite. He never runs time at trackwork and it was hard to get a line on him early. Rawiller revealed it was a barrier trial - and a defeat - when he first realised Pierro was going to be an outstanding racehorse. "I rode him in a trial at Canterbury before he had his first race and he slipped coming out of the gates, landed on his nose and I nearly went over his head," Rawiller said. But the colt picked himself up, flashed home and was just beaten. When I came back in, Gai (Waterhouse) asked me what was I doing back there. All I said to her was you have something special here. Rawiller has been on Pierro's back ever since, with the exception of the Canterbury Stakes last start when the stable champs clashed and he chose to ride More Joyous. He said making that decision was like being asked to "choose between your children." Greg Kolivos, who races Pierro with his wife Donna, said he understood why Rawiller elected to ride More Joyous last start. "I completely respected his decision," Kolivos said. Nash felt he had an obligation to More Joyous. Jimmy (Cassidy) was a gem to have on Pierro but it is great having Nash back on the horse after what he did last year. Nash has built a great affinity with Pierro, he has helped teach the horse to race. In a sense, horse and jockey share similar characteristics as both have the ability and a fierce will to win. When Nash is on, he does inspire confidence - he is not known as the 'enforcer of Sydney racing' for nothing. Rawiller doesn't have to choose between the two champs any more with Waterhouse plotting separate paths for both through the autumn. Despite suffering a rare Sydney defeat in the Canterbury Stakes, More Joyous is close to her best form again, according to Rawiller. "More Joyous went enormous first-up," Rawiller said. She had to give the colt a bit of a start and it was never going to be easy. But I think she probably ran as good a race first-up as she ever has. More Joyous is certainly one of my all-time favourite horses. Although Pierro and More Joyous are his stand-out rides on Australian racing's richest race day tomorrow, Rawiller has a powerful book that includes the Star Thoroughbreds-owned duo Whittington and Driefontein. Whittington is among Waterhouse's three runners in the $3.5 million Tooheys New Golden Slipper Stakes (1200m). Rawiller doesn't have quite the same level of confidence going into the Slipper tomorrow that he had 12 months ago when riding Pierro, but the jockey rates Whittington as a live chance in the big race. "He gradually improved from his first start and that is what I like most about him," he said. He put the form on the board early when he won the Breeders Plate but I always knew he was going to be peaking on Slipper day. Syndicator Denise Martin said Star Thoroughbreds had had some of their biggest wins when Rawiller was riding her horses. Some of their most notable wins together were with the weight-for-age war horse, Theseo. "The day Nash rode Theseo to win the Mackinnon Stakes on Derby Day at Flemington was one of the great highlights of my life," Martin said. But if Nash could win on Whittington, then it would be something else again. Martin said it felt like she had been waiting for this Golden Slipper for five years. "We had Sebring win the race in 2008 but Blake (Shinn) had been riding the colt right through and he was due to ride him in the Slipper until he got suspended," Martin said. Nash already had a prior commitment to another two-year-old of Gai's in the race so Glen (Boss) got the ride. I would love nothing more than to see Nash win the Golden Slipper wearing the Star Thoroughbred colours because I am such an admirer of him as a jockey, I am close friends with Nash and very fond of his wife, Sarah, and their family. She said Rawiller's great ability to remain composed under pressure set him apart from other jockeys. "Nash is one of the most talented jockeys I have ever seen," she said. He has wonderful balance and he lifts his horses to another dimension. He has this capacity to make average horses look good. The same could be said for Gai Waterhouse, trainer of Pierro, More Joyous and Whittington. Waterhouse lured Rawiller to Sydney six years ago and the combination has been extraordinarily successful. But the jockey is not resting on his laurels. Waterhouse maintains a cracking, unrelenting "pace," particularly during carnival time, and expects the same from jockeys. "For everyone in racing, this time of year is very intense," he said. But Gai seems to handle all the pressure pretty well.